Blood Night
by Grav
Summary: And as long as there is light, we shall fear no darkness! DanielJanet. COMPLETE.
1. Part One Infection

**Blood Night**

AN: "Blood Night" began with a whispered, badly rhyming poem one night way back in April, before Ninety-Nine Days and Second Front. The poem is not in the story anymore. This is largely because of what happened to me during the course of the writing.

Somewhere along the line, I became a fan of Janet Fraiser. Then, even more alarmingly, I became a 'shipper, and what began as a simple literary decision was suddenly a lifestyle choice, mostly for reasons which begin with "R" and end with "ite of Passage".

There are several people I need to thank and/or worship:

so.close, because my half is done. Now it's your turn.

MegTDJ, because great minds think alike.

Katerina17, because of the beta and the cruelty encouragement.

and Suzie Bagely, because "Frozen Flame" got me thinking....

Rating and Classification: PG-13, Daniel/Janet ERR.

Spoilers: Well, nothing too specific, but both Daniel and Janet are alive, so either between Threshold and Meridian or between Fallen and Heroes. Or that happy place, also known as Canadian Broadcasting, where Heroes hasn't happened yet. Alternatively, I could just call it AU and be done with it.

Disclaimer: How do I not own Stargate, let me count the ways....

Summary: And as long as there is light, we shall fear no darkness!

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**Infection**

"Chevron Seven is locked," announced Sergeant Davis as the wormhole surged out of the Stargate and then subsided to its usual watery aperture. "Wormhole established."

General Hammond activated the intercom between the Control Room and the 'Gate Room. "Have a good trip," he called down.

"Yes sir," replied Jack O'Neill, just a little too smartly, "We always have the best times when we're on mineral surveys."

Hammond decided he would allow himself one small smile after SG-1 had gone through the wormhole and he had retired to his office. Jack O'Neill's love of scientific expeditions was legendary, and the possible presence of naquadah on P3X 892 required SG-1's special talents, even if none of them belonged particularly to Jack. Hammond liked that they kept him humble. Jack nodded and raised his hand in a gesture that was half salute and half wave, then turned and led his team up the ramp and into the wild blue yonder.

Which turned out to be the smokey orange yonder, as the sunset glow filtered through the trees which surrounded the alien 'Gate. As the Stargate kawooshed out behind him, Jack removed his sunglasses and scowled into the surrounding foliage.

"Sorry, sir." Carter said apologetically. "I guess the time differential is bigger than we thought."

"It's OK, Carter. I just wish I hadn't wasted all that room in my pack with different kinds of hats."

"Perhaps we should set up our base camp, O'Neill." Teal'c suggested. "The UAV indicated that the naquadah was quite distant from the Stargate."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Jack replied lazily. "Carter, see if you can't find us something remotely defensible."

Sam nodded and was about to set off when a loud horn blast echoed through the forest. The UAV had not noted any signs of recent habitation. The initial blast was followed by a series of notes that, while not what Sam would call musical, was definitely the product of an organized species. Without words, SG-1 went immediately into tactical mode, fanning out with weapons ready.

"Daniel?" Jack put a world of questions into one word.

"I don't know," Daniel mumbled, adjusting his glasses with his free hand. "There isn't supposed to be anyone here. There was nothing by the 'Gate to indicate a culture. That was definitely a signal, but I haven't a clue what it could mean."

"Carter, Teal'c, give us a 50m sweep, radios on," Jack ordered crisply. "Daniel, count to fifteen and then follow them. I'll have our – "

And the woods around them were suddenly filled with men bearing crossbows.

"– six."

The men, for they were undoubtedly human, were dressed in brown and green tunics and vests with elaborately coloured embroidery. They wore hose, though Daniel was reasonably certain that he was the only one of the company who knew what hose were, and half boots made of something like leather. They had great variation in hair colour and were quite fair of face. There was nothing in their clothing or weaponry, however, that was immediately indicative of the Earth culture they had been taken from.

Jack and Sam steadily unhooked their P-90s and disarmed themselves. Teal'c leaned heavily on his staff weapon, as though to mask its true function. Off a look from Jack, Daniel cautiously stepped forward.

"My name is Daniel Jackson. We're peaceful explorers from a planet called Earth." Daniel kept his hands in plain view. "We came here looking for – "

"You must come with us at once." The man spoke in language that was almost English, but put emphasis in odd places. "It is not safe at night."

At a gesture from the speaker, the crossbows were lowered. Teal'c straightened and Jack stepped up beside Daniel.

"I think I'd like a bit more information before we go anywhere," Jack said.

"Please," said the man pleadingly, looking around nervously at the fading sunlight. "My name is Aeronn Swellingson and I swear by the Heart of the Lion, we mean you no harm. Demons came once through that 'Gate, but you are not they. We must get away from here before the sun is gone."

Daniel's reaction to the man's oath had been immediate, and he squinted suddenly at the men who still encircled them, his head tilted in thought. The reaction was not lost on Jack, who glanced into the woods, at Daniel and finally at Sam before nodding.

"All right," he said. "We'll come. But you need to talk to us."

"Of course, of course," Aeronn said as his companions formed something vaguely reminiscent of a phalanx around SG-1. "There will be the night to talk."

------------

Jack noted that Daniel had to restrain himself from skipping as they were escorted out of the woods. The archaeologist's eyes were everywhere, drinking in the details and cataloging them away for later. Not too much later, Jack hoped. Daniel's lectures tended to increase in length proportional to the amount of time he was forced to wait before giving them.

They broke free of the trees and Jack could just make out through the orange glare of the setting sun a town about 300 metres into what appeared to be a man-made clearing. Daniel became, if possible, even more excited. As they drew closer, Jack began to make out the architectural details Daniel found so entrancing.

The town was surrounded by a wall. The bottom metre and a half or so appeared to be fieldstone, on top of which was a tall wooden stockade. There were slits for arrows and look out points, which indicated that the wall was thick, and defensively necessary. Due to the height of the wall, only the tops of the houses were visible. They appeared to be made of wood as well, and about two storeys in height. Dominating the scape of the skyline, however, and as far as Jack could tell, the main source of Daniel's excitement, there stood the unmistakable silhouette of a Cathedral.

It was almost impossible to see in detail, because the sun was setting directly behind it, but there was no doubt in Daniel's mind. Somehow, these people had come from Earth, and they had done so more recently than he thought possible. Daniel thought back to the oath Aeronn had sworn and his mind began to reel. He definitely had questions.

Another series of blasts sounded on the horns, and the great wooden gate swung open. Immediately, though for completely different reasons, SG-1 began to scan their new surroundings. People were coming out of the houses which neatly lined the streets. The men were all dressed the way Aeronn's men were, and the women wore long skirts. A few of the older ones wore conical headdresses or scarves. Sam squinted into the crowd. The people did not act like they had just stepped outside to gawk at the visitors. No, it was more like they did this every night, regardless of the new additions to their company.

The street opened up into a wide courtyard lined by shops all of which were closed. At the far end of the square, still framed by the orange glow, stood the Cathedral. There were three steps up to it from the square, and standing on the steps were a group of robed fugues Daniel supposed were some sort of monks.

Aeronn left the groups and walked towards the steps. He disappeared into the assembled crowd and when he reappeared, he too was robed. The figures on the steps surveyed the crowd in silence and eventually there was no sound in the square. Sam craned her neck to see around the man in front of her, and he solicitously moved a bit when he realized he was blocking her view. She opened her mouth to whisper her thanks, but something stopped her. She knew, somehow, that a nod and smile was enough, that she should not make any noise at all.

The square got darker and darker as the sun sank. At last, the final few rays made their way over the horizon and then vanished from view. High up in the belfry, a bell began to toll. Daniel made an attempt to count the number of chimes, but the sound echoed around the square until it seemed to come from all sides at once and after three or four chimes they were quite indistinguishable from each other. As the last peal faded away into silence, the crowd looked up through the blackness expectantly.

Aeronn Swellingson's face was suddenly illuminated as he lit a torch which had been concealed in his robe. Though he did not shout, his voice carried well through the courtyard.

"Dixitque Deus fiat lux et facta est lux. Et vidit Deus lucem quod esset bona et divisit lucem ac tenebras. Et appellavitque lucem diem et tenebras noctem." Aeronn held his torch out to the monks on either side of him and the trail of lights covered the stairs. "Et dummodo est lux, timebit nullam tenebras."

The monks left the stairs and began lighting lamps and torches in the square. When all were lit, they went into the town and Jack could see the windows of the houses light up as they went along. Daniel was so beside himself with excitement that Jack was surprised he wasn't literally dichotomous. The words had been in Latin, Jack remembered enough of the language to be able to recognize it, though he could not do an on the spot translation like Daniel could. Whatever Daniel was waiting to tell them, however, was going to have to wait a little longer.

Aeronn reappeared next to Jack and motioned them to follow him. Still in silence, SG-1 trooped out of the square and followed Aeronn down yet another street and into a house.

"Welcome, welcome," Aeronn said finally, breaking the silence that even Jack now recognized as ritualistic. "This is my house and, God as my witness, you are welcome here. I will answer your questions as best I can, but first, dinner is waiting."

Samantha Carter was no anthropologist. Still, she wasn't stupid. She had taken history in high school and knew the Middle Ages when she was standing in them. She'd been doing her best to keep her head down, and so far no one had said anything. There weren't many missions where her gender came back to haunt her, but those when it had stood out in her memory. This Aeronn who had so courteously invited them into his house had not yet, as far as she could tell, seen her clearly. His position in the community was obvious and he seemed to have religious responsibility as well. If her memory served her correctly, she wasn't sure that this was an equation she was going to like.

Her fears were immediately put to rest, however, by what happened next. Aeronn led them into a cheerily lit room with a roaring fire and a large wooden table laden with food. A woman was lighting the candelabra in the centre of the table, and she turned as they entered the room.

"Oh Aeronn, by the Heart of the Lion, you are the absolute end!" Sam no longer had any doubt who ruled this house and relaxed slightly. There was no mistaking that particular tone. "You really do enjoy showing off. Heaven only knows how far these people have come, and probably didn't even give them a chance to introduce themselves."

Aeronn stood in the doorway, spluttering slightly, and Daniel stepped smoothly into the conversation.

"My name is Daniel Jackson. This is Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter and Teal'c," he said, indicating each in turn. "We're explorers."

"My name is Maram Richisdaughter, and you are welcome to a seat at my table."

At her nod, SG-1 drew up chairs at the table. Aeronn sat at the head and Maram sat at the foot. On Daniel's left, there was an empty place setting, and Aeronn had his hand on the back of the empty chair. Maram too looked at the empty chair, somewhat longingly, but quickly glanced away and began serving up food on plates and passing them down the table. It appeared that they were about to tuck into something that was very much like a turkey dinner, but of course SG-1 ate nothing until their hosts gave indication. Aeronn said a few words in that language Jack recognized but couldn't understand, and then picked up his knife and fork.

"So, um, do you meet in the square like that every evening?" Daniel asked after carefully swallowing his mouthful.

"Yes," said Maram. "Every night, we meet in for The Lighting."

"So what is it with the dark, then?" Jack questioned. "I mean, my Latin isn't very good, but I recognize the words for light and darkness."

"That is a long tale," Aeronn said. "But we have time to tell it."

Maram made a noise suspiciously like a snort. Aeronn shot her a withering glare, which she more or less ignored and passed another roll to Teal'c.

"About eight hundred years ago, as far as we can tell, our ancestors left their homes for a long journey," Aeronn began, attempting to get some of his dignity back. "They traveled for many days across the lands they knew to a place where it was very hot. And there, they fought a war for a city that was held by a dark skinned people, completely unlike them, except that both sides were human.

"But it wasn't a normal war," Aeronn went on. "There were soldiers, of course, great knights who rode horses that shone in the sun for the metal they wore, but there were women and children and old men too. They brought everything they had with them, from chickens to family heirlooms, not knowing that they would never see their homes again."

"At any rate, the Demons with glowing eyes came and took them from the world in great ships." All of SG-1 straightened instantly in recognition. "They were brought here and enslaved. I see by your reaction that this situation is not unexpected."

"Um, yes," said Jack. "It's happened before. We live on the planet you were taken from."

"We know," Maram said calmly, "Terra. Our history is quite specific."

Jack momentarily understood how Daniel felt sometimes, but he recovered quickly. "Do the Goa'uld, the demons, still come here?"

"No," Aeronn looked again at the empty chair. "No, they abandoned us."

"You drove them off?" Teal'c clarified.

"Not exactly," Maram said. "The people prayed for deliverance, but none came. And then a generation of children were born, and when they came of age, they were sickened and could no longer bear the light. The demons made them work in the night, but they went mad. They began to attack and kill, even their own families, and they feasted upon the blood and flesh of their victims."

"The demons abandoned us here," Aeronn took over. "We could no longer work for them. But our freedom came at a great price. Now, in the week surrounding a child's Coming of Age, he or she goes into the mountains to a safe cave to pray and meditate. If they return, then they are Sandiem, those who walk in the light, and songs are written to welcome them as adults into our society."

"And if they don't?" Sam asked quietly.

Aeronn looked at her for a long moment before answering, "Then they are Sanoctem, and they are lost to us."

"How many?" Daniel asked just as softly.

"About one if four never return." Maram said briskly with a quick glance at the empty chair. "In my grandmother's grandmother's time, it was as many as half."

"What exactly is a Sanoctem?" Jack's correct pronunciation of the word announced loudly how seriously he was taking this situation.

"They were like us, once," Aeronn sighed. "But they cry tears of blood and have horrible lesions all over their bodies. They rage mad in the forests and attack anything that moves in the darkness. In the sun, they undergo Inferno, a terrible sight to see."

The fire popped in the hearth and they all started. Looking down at his plate, Jack realized that everything was now stone cold and it was very late, locally at any rate. Maram stood up and took two lamps off of the sideboard.

"There are two rooms at the top of the stairs where you can sleep," she said as she lit the lamps and handed one to Daniel and the other to Sam. "We'll talk more in the morning."

Jack nodded and thanked her again for dinner. Daniel, who had calmed down slightly over the meal, was gearing up again. Jack was a little relieved. Late as the local hour was, it was still relatively early in Colorado, and Jack had never been one to adjust well to jet-lag. Still, he had discovered that Daniel's cultural lessons were the best sleep aid he had ever come across. It wasn't so much that Daniel was boring, it was that Jack found it hard to get so terribly excited about people and cultures that had been gone for centuries.

They located the rooms Maram had directed them to with ease. One was quite small and had a single pallet bed made up on the floor. The other was quite a bit larger, and had three beds. Sam left her gear in the smaller room and followed the rest of her team into the larger one.

"This is really amazing," Daniel said, setting down his pack and settling on one of the beds. "They're Crusaders."

"I agree," Teal'c said. Jack looked at him, somewhat surprised. "I have made a study of Earth conflicts. The Crusades were of particular interest to me."

No one asked why.

"So what do you make of this Snocktem thingy?" Jack directed his question at Daniel.

"They sound a bit like vampires, don't they?" Daniel mused. "I mean they're afraid of the sun and they drink blood."

"What about the language?" Sam asked. "You said it was Latin, sir?"

"Yes, it is." It was Daniel who answered, though both Jack and Teal'c were nodding. "And it's almost textbook. The bit that Aeronn said in the square was straight from the Bible."

"Which part?"

"Genesis One," Daniel said. "'And God said 'Let there be light', and there was light: And God saw the light, that it was good: And God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day and the darkness he called night.' They have an extra bit on the end, "And as long as there is light, we shall fear no darkness'."

"Well, these people are definitely afraid of the dark," Jack said.

"Daniel Jackson, what is the Latin word for blood?" Teal'c asked, his voice speculative.

"Sanguen," Daniel said instantly, then his eyes widened. "So Sanoctem means Night Blood and Sandiem, Day Blood."

"What about the missing letters?" Sam asked.

"Languages shift over time, and letters fall out as common words or word combinations get shortened or left out altogether."

"Pardon?" Jack said.

"Precisely," Daniel was miles ahead of them by now, and not really paying attention. "You only said 'Pardon', but I know you meant 'I beg your pardon, Daniel, but what was that last part again?', so I can answer you."

"What about the religion?" Sam asked quickly before Jack could jump back in with something completely irrelevant. "Is there anything I – we, should avoid?"

"I'm not sure yet," Daniel looked at her understandingly. "I would have said they were early Roman Catholics and that you should be careful, but Maram doesn't really act like a model 12th century wife. And, if they were Roman Catholic, Aeronn wouldn't be married. We'll see what we can find out tomorrow."

"Wife?" said Jack. "But they don't have the same name."

Daniel did not quite restrain himself from rolling his eyes, though he made a valiant effort.

"Their names are Swelling_son_ and Richis_daughter_," he explained. "It's genealogical."

"Of course it is."

"I'd like to look at the MALP readings tomorrow, sir," Sam said, putting the conversation back on track. Again. "See if we can pin point where the naquadah is. I get the impression that the old mines aren't places these people willingly visit. We might be better to just find them ourselves."

"I believe we should endeavour to find out as much about the Sanoctem as we can, O'Neill," Teal'c said. "They may be a threat, should we need to go on an extended scouting mission."

"Indeed," Daniel coughed somewhat suspiciously, but covered it up, so Jack kept talking. "In that case, we'll turn in. It sounds like tomorrow is going to be a busy day.

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to be continued....


	2. Part Two Blood Tears

AN: After the monstrosity also know as chapter one, I have elected to cut the remaining parts into something a little more....manageable. Hence the return to thousand word chapters.

**Part Two - Blood Tears**

Sam was awake with the light of dawn, but the knock on her door still made her jump a little. Without waiting for an answer, Maram bustled in carrying a basin of water and a towel in her hands.

"Good morning," Sam said, rising to her feet.

"Yes, it is." Maram agreed. "I hope the day continues in such a fashion."

Sam was a bit puzzled by the remark and wondered fleetingly if it had anything to do with the empty chair at the table the night before. Something was making Maram sad, but since the woman had covered it up with cheerfulness and Sam wasn't sure it was any of her business, she didn't say anything. Besides, she had plenty of other questions to ask.

"Maram, may I ask you something?" she said politely as she began to wash her face.

"Of course, Major."

"Call me Sam. Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone would find...well...I mean," Sam struggled. Applied anthropology always left her flustered. "I didn't see any other women wearing pants last night. Will it offend anyone that I do?"

"I shouldn't think so. You all dress strangely. And many of our girls wear trousers when they go out of town." Her face darkened again. "Why?"

"Well the Crusaders, your - our ancestors, had some pretty particular ideas about women."

"Oh that," Maram laughed. "It has been eight hundred years, Sam. Surely your world has changed too?"

"Yes, most of it." Sam felt a little silly. Still, better safe than sorry.

"One thing the men of Sandiem learned very early on was to respect their women." Maram said proudly. "There were many more men than women originally, when we were brought here I mean, and so marriages and children were greatly important."

"That's why your names are genealogical." Sam reasoned.

"I'm sorry?"

"Never mind," Sam said quickly, filing it away to tell Daniel later. "Thank you for answering."

"It is wonderfully exciting to meet people from Terra," Maram said. "I'll leave you to get ready for breakfast." And she made her way out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

At breakfast, which was much simpler than the meal they had eaten the night before, there again stood an empty chair and place setting. Jack could tell that Daniel was dying to ask why the chair was significant, but the archaeologist refrained from doing so. Instead, he spent the meal trying to figure out which of the Crusades Aeronn's ancestors had been on when they had been taken by the Goa'uld. Since his only clues were linguistic, Daniel was not having much luck. However, given that Aeronn and Maram had both used the expression 'By the Heart of the Lion', Daniel was leaning towards the 1190s.

"What is your plan for today, Colonel?" Aeronn asked as he and Daniel concluded their discussion of Richard I.

"Well, Carter and Daniel were hoping to go back to the Stargate and see the MALP." Jack began.

"What is a MALP?" Maram asked quickly.

"It's a...device that collects information for us." Sam explained. "It records things we would not see by ourselves."

"May I come with you?" Maram asked. "That sounds intriguing."

"Of course," Jack answered. "Teal'c and I would like to see your defenses, if you don't mind."

"Easily done, Colonel," Aeronn said. "I'll take you to Zephrey Richison, my brother by marriage. He understands such things much better than I. I shall accompany Sam and Daniel as well."

They again left their plates on the table when they filed out of the dining room. Teal'c saw a flicker of movement just as the door swung shut, but decided it was not a threat and did not say anything to Jack.

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Zephrey Richison, though separated from Chulak by thousands of years and millions of kilometres, found a kindred spirit in Teal'c almost immediately. Surrounded by such laconic company, Jack felt uncharacteristically chatty as he peppered Zephrey with questions about the strength of the wall and range of the various medieval weaponry while they walked along the promontory. He was just about to voice his lamentations over not bringing Daniel, whom he felt would have better understood the historic weapons when Teal'c finally spoke up.

"Were you able to procure pitch and naphtha Zephrey Richison?" he asked. "Or have you manufactured a suitable replacement?"

Zephrey grinned in a manner that could only be described as wolfish and led them into an alcove on the outer side of the wall. There was what Jack thought to be an unsafely large window through which he could see Carter's party disappearing into the woods. Zephrey pulled a lever and the large cauldron in the middle of the floor rose up into the air, blocking the view. Jack looked perplexedly at Teal'c.

"It was common practice to defend a walled keep by pouring burning pitch down upon those who might attempt to scale it." Teal'c explained. Jack winced. "The practice was maintained here."

"There are deposits of tar to the east of here." Zephrey pointed towards the sun. Apparently, the compass points hadn't changed here after all. "We distill it, but don't use it very often."

"Do the Sanoctem not attack?" Teal'c queried.

"Indeed," said Zephrey, a hint of sadness in his voice. "They do. But we prefer to hold them off by...less extreme measures."

Jack looked at the cauldron again and shuddered, but quickly to hold of himself.

"Do you maintain a watch?"

"Nightly," Zephrey said, leading them back out on to the promontory. "The garrison does four hour shifts from The Lighting to sunrise."

"How long are the nights?" asked Jack, hoping he this would not lead to a discussion about the precession of the equinoxes.

"In high summer they are short, but in winter they can be longer than twelve hours." Zephrey said. "But it is the summers that are the worst. The sun makes them worse, you see."

"Are there enemies other than the Sanoctem?" Teal'c asked.

"No," came the reply. "There are other towns, of course, but we do not fight them, and the Demons have never returned."

"Do you mind if Teal'c and I join your watch tonight?" Jack asked, finally getting to the question he had been waiting all morning to ask.

"Of course. We would wel-" But Zephrey stopped talking and was staring out to the north.

Jack and Teal'c instinctively followed his gaze. To the north were the foothills of what appeared to be a very impressive mountain range. Below them was the thick forest that would encircle the town if not for the clearing. At the edge of the clearing a solitary figure was making its way towards the village. As Jack squinted for a better look, Zephrey pushed past him, his face aglow with unadulterated joy. Within seconds, their guide had disappeared down a set of stairs, and they could hear his muffled shouts as he issued what could only be orders. Teal'c quirked an eyebrow, Jack sighed, and the two of them made their way off the wall.

------------

to be continued....


	3. Chapter II

"This is very curious." Maram ran her hands along the treads of the MALP as she spoke. "It talks to you?"

"Not really," said Sam, a slight smile on her face. She pointed to a screen. "It puts the information here and then I can read it."

"What is it telling you?" Aeronn asked, peering fruitlessly at the charts and diagrams on the screen. "This doesn't make any sense at all."

"I don't understand most of it either," Daniel admitted, winking at Sam. "But Sam does, and she translates well."

"Right now the MALP is telling me about your sun." Sam answered, grinning fully now. "It's comparing it to our own sun, and telling me if there are any differences."

She continued to read the display, calling up other reports and setting the MALP to new tasks while continuing her simplified explanation to Aeronn and Maram. She paused suddenly in her dissertation, her attention grabbed by a certain graph. Daniel moved to look over her shoulder.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Some sort of solar radiation," Sam said, sounding puzzled. "It's in the Ultra Violet spectrum, but it's not UVA or UVB, that's for sure, and I'm not sure exactly what it means."

"Or what it might do to us?"

Sam opened her mouth to reply, but her answer was cut off by the sudden arrival of a young man Daniel remembered having seen at The Lighting the previous night. He burst out of the trees at top speed shouting for Aeronn and Maram. When he saw them, he leaned heavily against a tree, exhausted from his run.

"She's back," he gasped out, trying to get his breath back.

At his words, expressions of joy and utmost relief covered Aeronn and Maram's faces. They both immediately ran off in the direction of the town, leaving Sam and Daniel staring perplexedly after them and the young man leaning against the tree, his chest still heaving.

"What was that?" Daniel asked.

"Esser Aeronnsdaughter has returned to her family," the young man announced happily. "Come, there will be great rejoicing tonight."

Daniel followed willingly enough, but Sam cast one last look over her shoulder at the MALP. She was missing something, something she had a feeling was going to be very important, but she could not think what it was. Finally, she shrugged and shook her head slightly, as though to clear it. She lengthened her stride and had soon caught up with the others.

In the clearing, the sun bathed and 'Gate and the MALP in its alien light.

------------

They had not seen Aeronn, Maram or Esser in some hours. By the time Daniel and Sam had reached the town, Jack and Teal'c were waiting for them and the whole team spent the rest of the day with Zephrey. The man's attitude had lightened considerably, but there was still something sad lingering in his eyes.

"Why do you always send the children away for their coming of age?" Daniel asked, as the sun lowered in the sky. "I mean, they're gone for a week. How do they defend themselves?"

"It is too dangerous to the others if the transformation takes place in a populated place," Zephrey said. "We would have to kill them if they changed here. This way, they can go to the caves and seal themselves in. Only from the inside can the doors be opened. If they do not change, they wait for the daylight and then come home."

"Aren't there a lot of Sanoctem in those hills then?" Sam questioned. "Can't they take over your caves?"

"There is nothing for the Sanoctem to eat up there." Zephrey said, grimacing slightly. "Come, the sun is setting. We must go to the square."

The square was, if possible, even more crammed this night than it had been the one previous. This was largely because a mammoth bonfire, as yet unlit of course, and a dozen large tables had appeared. The monks again stood on the steps up to the cathedral, and this time the silence which fell over the assembled crowd was excitedly hushed.

Aeronn spoke again the hallowed words, and the light of the torches pin pointed across the stairs. Then Esser emerged from the cathedral. She was bare foot and her hair was unbound. In her hand, she held aloft an unlit torch. She stood before her father, and he said something quietly to her that Daniel was reasonably certain was not actually part of the ceremony. Then, he touched his torch to hers. With her flaming torch in hand, Esser descended to the bonfire, touching flame to each corner as she trod around it. Finally, she faced the crowd again and threw her torch to the top of the pile, which ignited immediately.

A roar of joy arose from those assembled, and the monks threw back to their hoods to reveal smiling faces. Though Teal'c could have sworn he had not observed anyone carrying musical instruments, the square was suddenly full of them. Food appeared on the tables and laughter filled the air.

Zephrey Richison waded through the milling crowd, working his way back to SG-1 to speak with Jack.

"Is it still your wish to join our watch tonight, Colonel?" he asked politely, obviously expecting that Jack would wish to remain at the party.

"Yes," said Jack, pausing only briefly to shoot a look at Sam, who nodded. "Teal'c and I will join you. That will free up two of your men to stay here."

"Thank you, Colonel." Zephrey inclined his head, then straightened and led the way out of the square.

Sam and Daniel stood looking at each other for a moment, then by unspoken agreement made their way towards the bonfire where Esser and her parents were surrounded by well wishers. The crowd had subsided a little by the time they got there, having moved along to the tables. A tall woman bore a cup to Maram, who took it in both hands and drank before passing it on to her husband.

Maram raised her face and began to sing. Sam knew enough about music to know that the song was in a minor key, but that was about it. Maram sang in Latin and Daniel whispered somewhat spotty translations under his breath so that Sam would understand. Maram's voice rose, singing of her anguish as she waited for a daughter she was not sure she would ever see again. As she reached her crescendo, she grasped Esser's hand and her final note faded into the firelight.

On her other side, Aeronn raised his voice to sing. He sang of a father's pride and thankfulness that his daughter had returned home, and his voice was not sad. Maram raised her voice alongside his as Aeronn reached the end of his melody. They sang together, their daughter held between them as though they would never let her go again. Sam realized she had goosebumps on her goosebumps.

"Sam! Daniel!" called Aeronn, finally spotting them in the mass and waving them over. "This is our daughter Esser. She has Returned."

Sam greeted the girl enthusiastically. It was easy to tell close up that Esser was her parents' daughter. Esser was one of those children who managed to look exactly like both of her parents, even though neither of them looked anything alike. The result could not be described as stunningly beautiful, but Esser had a look that could only be described as self-assured, and Sam knew how a young woman acquired a look like that.

"Father, I need to ask you something," Esser said hesitantly. Aeronn steeled himself, as though he already knew what his daughter was going to ask him. "Where...where is Eprem?"

"Eprem has not Returned." Aeronn said heavily. Esser's face fell and her father enfolded her in his arms. "I am sorry, child."

Aeronn held his daughter, and for a few minutes, the joviality in the square seemed to dim, and the fire burn with less enthusiasm. When Esser raised her face again, however, there was a set look to it.

"Tonight is for rejoicing." She said determinedly. "Tomorrow is for...tomorrow."

Maram led her daughter off into the crowd where she was immediately beset by well wishers and swung off into the merry dance that had begun around the fire. Daniel was watching Aeronn closely, trying to think how to best word his next suggestion. He hadn't got around to discussing medical traditions with anyone yet, and he wasn't sure how Aeronn would react.

"Who was Eprem?" Sam asked while he was thinking.

"Eprem is a good friend of my daughter's." Aeronn placed only the slightest emphasis on his verb tense.

"Were they betrothed?" Sam always felt awkward saying that word, despite Daniel's insistence that, etymologically speaking, it was much more romantic than 'engaged'.

"No," said Aeronn, his eyes distant. "No, we don't trothplight children. Not because we think they are too young, no Esser and Eprem were the sort born for each other. We wait so that situations like this don't happen.

"I have only one daughter and she Returned." Aeronn paused for a moment, looking out at his happily dancing wife and daughter. "Eprem had three older brothers and now his mother keeps an empty house."

"It's genetic," Sam said without thinking.

"I beg your pardon, Sam?" Aeronn replied.

"The Sanoctem tendency runs in families," Daniel explained. "Like how Esser got your blue eyes and Maram's hair."

Aeronn looked thunderstruck, opening and closing his mouth several times without saying anything.

"Aeronn," began Sam, and Daniel knew what she was about to ask. "We have some very advanced medical technology on out planet. A good friend of mine is an excellent doctor. If you let us take a blood sample from Esser and some of the younger children, she might be able to devise a treatment."

"This is...amazing," said Aeronn breathlessly. "We would be eternally in your debt. What would you require in return?"

Daniel opened his mouth, but Sam beat him to it.

"Nothing right away." Sam said. "We might want to negotiate for trade with your planet at a later date, but you have a medical emergency on your hands. If we can help you, we will."

Aeronn tried again to speak and was again over come. He took a deep breath and finally spoke.

"I will talk to some of my friends with young children. And I know that Esser will do anything..." he didn't finish, but Sam knew he was again thinking of Eprem.

"Meet me back at your house in ten minutes, and I'll have my blood kit ready." Sam said.

Aeronn nodded and set off into the crowd with an air of excitement. Daniel and Sam exchanged a glance, both hoping they had not just touched off a false hope. Something still nagged at Sam as she left the square to set up her impromptu blood bank, but it floated annoyingly just out of her reach.

------------

to be continued....


	4. Chapter III

Sam had just finished labeling the last blood sample when the horns sang out. The reaction of the Sandiem was instantaneous. This was no greeting or call of joy. This was a warning, and Daniel did not have to wonder what it was warning about: the Sanoctem were attacking the town.

While Daniel stowed the blood samples into the small cooler in Sam's pack, Sam grabbed up her combat gear and Daniel's gun. The two of them made their way to the wall there they located Jack and Teal'c by the sounds of their voices. The Sanoctem were by no means organized in their assault on the wall. Rather than attacking as a group, they charged individually. Even in the sputtering torch light, the madness was evident in their faces, and even when mortally wounded, they did not falter in their onslaught until they were dead.

Jack gave no order to fire. Instead, the four members of SG-1 gazed down at the battle, if it could be called that, feeling slightly sick. The attackers were pale and unkempt, but they were undoubtedly human, and they were obviously very, very ill. There was an archer standing on the wall just to Teal'c's left, and Teal'c could hear the man weeping with each arrow he loosed.

It was soon over, and Zephrey came along the wall to speak to them.

"They often attack on feast nights," he said in a sick voice. "The light and noise attracts them. There were only about fifty tonight, and I think we drove most of them off. Colonel, would you and your team join us outside the wall? We must check the bodies."

"What for?" Daniel asked without thinking. He silently cursed himselfas he figured out his own answer.

"To see if it's anyone we know."

------------

The night dragged on and on. The stars and moon shone down, quite uncaring, on the town. There had been a dozen bodies, and only one of them had been recognized. Sam had unobtrusively collected blood samples from the cadavers and put them with the ones she'd taken earlier in the evening. More and more people began to file on to the walls, looking down over the strewn field. Esser's face was pale with exhaustion and grief, but she stood resolutely between her mother and father on the wall.

The sky in the east began to turn pink and a hush fell over the watchers. Those who were still in the field or in their houses hurried to the wall as well. The first few rays of sunlight appeared on the horizon and the dew on the on the grass began to glisten. Daniel squinted at the corpses. They were smoking. The light grew steadily brighter, and the smoke became more obvious. As the full morning sun filled the eastern sky, the bodies of the Sanoctem burst into flame. A loud gasp ran up and down the wall as the Sandiem watched with awe and terror as their brethren were incinerated.

"Inferno," Zephrey said, his voice dead. "Ash unto ash."

Jack looked sideways at his team, gauging their reactions. Teal'c's eyebrows were raised so high that his golden tattoo was almost bent. Daniel wasn't watching, having averted his eyes to stare at his feet instead. It was Sam's expression that concerned him the most though. His 2IC's eyes had that familiar 'I've just made a really important conclusion, sir.' look to them, but the rest of her face was recoiling in fear.

"Carter?"

"We have to go," she said, an odd note of horror in her voice. "Now."

"Why?"

"The sun. The sun is what causes this."

"You said it was genetic!" Daniel exclaimed.

"It is," Sam said, "but the sun triggers it and we have to go. Now, sir."

"I don't-" began Jack.

"These people share our genome," Sam said. Several townspeople were staring openly at them now. "All the adults here must be immune. But I don't know about us."

Jack was gaping at her now, painfully aware of his own freshly sunburnt face. He paused for only a few more seconds before autopilot took over and he sprang into action.

"Teal'c, Carter, go and get all of our gear. If it's too heavy, leave it, but make sure you bring the blood samples. Daniel, you go and dial. Take Zephrey with you and show him how to work the communication system on the MALP. Send a message to the base so that Fraiser knows what she is in for." His people left as soon as he ordered them, and several of the locals went along to help. "Aeronn, I am sorry, but -"

"I understand, Colonel," he said. "I am sorry. We did not know."

"That's all right," Jack cut back in. "I need you to maintain a daylight watch by the MALP and 'Gate. We'll be in touch."

Aeronn nodded as Sam and Teal'c appeared at the bottom of the wall. Jack took his gear from the townsman who had carried it for him, and they headed off briskly for the 'Gate. By the time they got there, the wormhole was active and Daniel had sent the message. Zephrey helped him into his pack.

Jack hurried his team up the steps and watched them as they passed through. Just before he stepped over the event horizon, he looked back over his shoulder. Zephrey raised one hand in farewell and Jack stepped through and disappeared.

------------

"Well, I don't see anything immediately wrong with you." Dr. Janet Fraiser switched off her pen light and put her stethoscope in her ears. She held it up to Daniel's chest. "I won't know for certain though until the labs come back."

"What will the lab results tell you?" General Hammond asked.

"I wish I knew, sir." Janet sighed and removed the stethoscope. "I suppose if their blood samples match the Sandiem they're fine and if they match the Sanoctem…"

"When?"

"Three hours. Unless there's something really foreign that the mass spectroscope can't identify." Janet spoke somewhat mechanically, her attention diverted by one of her patients. "Daniel, what's wrong?"

The archaeologist had removed his glasses and was rubbing his eyes as though they itched. Janet walked back to him and took his hands in hers. She stared at them for a few seconds, uncomprehending, before raising her face to look into his. Her expression changed from concern to horror. Streaming down Daniel's face were tears of blood.

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to be continued….


	5. Part Three Lesions

AN: This chapter was actually the very first part of the story I had written. Kind of an inside joke, if you will.

**Chapter Three: Lesions**

Jack had entirely given up his pretense of maintaining a semblance of military reserve long before Dr. Fraiser came into the briefing room. Hammond had escaped to his office, saying that he had reports for the Joint Chiefs to finish, although Jack could clearly see the general's chair from his own, and it was unoccupied. Teal'c sat impassively, as always, but he was twiddling his thumbs, which signaled that the Jaffa was practically out of his skin. Sam was writing something down on the papers in front of her, a look of intense concentration covering her near panic. Jack couldn't see exactly what she was scribbling, as it appeared to him upside down, but he thought it might be a list of prime numbered elements and their various isotopes.

Jack was on the verge of making spit balls when Janet could finally be heard mounting the spiral staircase. Hammond, also alerted by the noise, was settled in his chair at the head of the table but the time Janet had taken her seat beside Sam.

"You three are clear," she announced, palpable relief in her voice. "Your blood chemistry matches Esser's and a few of the other children.

"Daniel's on the other hand has been altered." She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. "There are some additional protein markers that were also present in the Sanoctem samples you brought back with you."

"Do you have any ideas, Doctor?" Hammond asked, his voice very quiet.

"Well," Janet's professional façade cracked ever so slightly, and she made no attempt to recover it. "The closest Earth disease I can come up with is Porphyria. Sam described the Sanoctem symptoms to me, and they are actually quite similar. Someone with acute Porphyria suffers from chest and abdominal pains, vomiting, personality changes and fits of madness, all of which are triggered by exposure to the sun."

"Is there a cure Dr. Fraiser?" Teal'c asked.

"No. There's no cure. All you can do is keep the patient out of the sun."

"Well that should be easy enough," Sam said. "Our sun doesn't emit the same sort of radiation. All Daniel has to do is never go back."

"Theoretically, yes," Janet agreed. "But that doesn't solve the planet's problem."

"Can you make them sunscreen or something?" Jack asked, his tone and choice of words indicating his relief.

"I'd like something a little more permanent than that, Colonel. Sir," she directed at Hammond, "Permission to begin developing a treatment and preventative measures?"

"Granted," replied Hammond, without missing a beat. "Will you be releasing Dr. Jackson?"

"Yes, but I'd like him to remain on base for observation."

"Right," Hammond nodded. "Colonel, SG-1 is on stand-down until Dr. Fraiser has time to figure out if she can manufacture a cure. Don't go too far away, though. If something comes up with the Sandiem, I want you to be around to handle it. Dismissed."

Hammond went back to his office. Janet had flown out of the room almost before the general had finished talking. Jack, Sam and Teal'c were a bit slower to rise. It had been almost 36 hours since they had last slept, and the tension of waiting for Janet's diagnosis had left them all feeling drained. The time lag made it even worse. Jack felt like it had been eleven o'clock in the morning for hours.

Teal'c excused himself to go and meditate. Sam looked down at her papers as though seeing them for the first time and not understanding why she had written anything in the first place. She tore them in half and threw them in the recycling bin.

"Do you have plans, Major?" Jack asked.

"Yes sir. I thought I might get some blood from Janet and run a few tests of my own," she said. "I'd like to see if I can artificially create the radiation and see exactly what effect it has."

"Right." Jack had absolutely no idea how this would help, but at least it was work. "I'll walk you to the infirmary. I think I'll take Daniel to the mess and make him eat something."

He paused, fixing her with a piercing look that she returned unflinchingly.

"I'll eat something too, sir. I promise."

------------

"How are you doing, Janet?" Sam asked, as soon as Daniel and the Colonel exited the infirmary.

"I'm fine, Sam." Janet began sterilizing equipment, and refused to meet Sam's look. "Why would I be anything else?"

"Do you really want me to speculate the answer to that question?"

"No."

"I didn't think so. So how are you?"

"Worried as hell."

"That sounds about right. Still, the best person possible is handling the situation."

"Thanks, Sam." Janet set down the towel and smiled. "Was there something else you wanted?"

If Janet wanted to change the subject, Sam would let her. God knew, Sam did it enough herself.

"Yes, as a matter of fact there is."

------------

Daniel appeared none the worse for wear. As Jack marched him to the commissary, Daniel babbled on and on about how amazing it was that the Sandiem had developed their religion without any of the conflict that had spawned on Earth. He hypothesized that it might be in part because all of the Sandiem practiced the same religion to begin with, but maintained that it was still a pretty significant accomplishment. Jack murmured non-committal responses and what he hoped were appropriate intervals, having tuned Daniel out almost before they had left the infirmary.

In truth, Jack was happy that he had his archaeologist back. Having Daniel in one piece and relatively healthy was worth having to listen to spontaneous dissertations about subjects he had no interest in whatsoever. Jack was so focused on winding his spaghetti around his fork that at first he did not realize that Daniel had stopped talking. It filtered gradually through Jack's consciousness that Daniel did not usually stop talking once he got going unless he was forcibly restrained, and certainly not for something so small as a mouth full of food. Jack was tired and his coffee had not kicked in yet, so it was not until Daniel and the chair he sat upon crashed to the floor that he began to register that he might have a problem on his hands.

As soon as the thought sank in, though, Jack was moving.

"Daniel!" he yelled, knowing that it was absolutely useless. He turned to a nearby airmen, who was also on his feet. "You! Fraiser. Now. Somebody else, clear the tables and chairs."

A feeling of cold terror took root in Jack's stomach and began to spread throughout his body. This was not a kind of casualty he could deal with. He knew how to make field dressings and resuscitate someone whose heart and lungs had stopped. He was out of his league, and he knew it. Why had he never asked what to do if Daniel had an allergic reaction and went into anaphylaxis?

For that was clearly what it was. Jack remembered reading something, years ago, when Charlie had been diagnosed with his allergy to bee stings, that told him what anaphylactic shock looked like. Charlie had needed his EP-pen. What did you give someone when you weren't sure what they were allergic to?

Janet burst into the commissary, emergency team hot on her heals, and was shouting for epinephrine before the doors had swung fully open to admit her. Once the anti-inflammatory had been injected, she tried to take Daniel's pulse, but it was fluctuating so erratically that she abandoned the effort. Issuing orders like drill sergeant, she had Daniel's still convulsing form on a gurney and out the door in moments.

Jack stood in the centre of the disheveled floor for a few moments, brain still processing what had just happened. He gave a few half hearted orders to return the commissary to order, and then set off for the infirmary.

------------

tbc....


	6. Chapter II

Janet liked it when the infirmary was silent. Silence meant that there was no emergency; no triage mayhem, no whining colonels, no flat-lining she could not explain. Daniel was breathing on his own now and he had been disconnected from most of the monitors. He was asleep naturally, the combination of his long wakefulness and recent trauma had wiped him out. Janet had finally chased Jack, Sam and Teal'c out of the infirmary two hours ago, insisting that she would sedate them herself if they didn't leave and get some sleep.

Now a small part of her regretted it. If Sam were here, Janet would have someone to talk to about the file she currently held in front her. It was the results of Daniel's latest blood test, one taken after this latest episode. And it was clear. The foreign proteins that Janet hadn't yet had time to identify were gone and Daniel's blood chemistry had been altered again.

This was more frustrating that Janet was prepared to cope with. She hadn't even properly diagnosed Daniel yet, and he had managed to stumble on to something that cured him, though, she admitted with a shiver, it had almost killed him in the process. Sighing loudly into the silence that pervaded the infirmary, Janet set the files aside and reached again for the papers she had used to record her sunscreen experiments on. She'd done long perplexing shifts on-call before. She could do it again tonight.

------------

Jack and Teal'c showed up in the infirmary bright and early the next morning, just as Daniel was finishing his second cup of coffee. Janet was pouring over the list of ingredients from yesterday's lunch which she had procured from the quartermaster, methodically ruling them out as she compared them to a list entitled 'Allergies: Jackson, Daniel (Earth Edition)'. She overheard Jack's greeting and Teal'c's polite inquiry after Daniel's health, and made her way over to the three of them.

"Sleep well, Colonel?" she asked, getting only the expected smirk in return. She turned to Daniel. "Daniel, do you remember exactly what you ate yesterday?"

"Well, to be honest, I wasn't really paying attention." Daniel replied. Jack swallowed a guffaw. "I was playing with the spaghetti, but I don't remember eating any of it. I only took one bite of my bread, and then–"

"What was on the bread?" Janet cut in.

Daniel shrugged. "It smelled a bit like garlic."

"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Jack burst out. All heads turned to face him. "Can't go out in the daylight, drinks blood, a bit crazy and now can't stand garlic? What's next? Stakes and crucifixes?"

There was dead silence, yet again, as Janet assimilated the idea into a concept she could deal with under a scientific premise.

"That might explain why the allergic reaction escalated into anaphylactic shock," she mused.

"I'm allergic to a lot of things," Daniel protested, "But garlic isn't one of them."

"I can't explain it, Daniel, but you were definitely in shock. You even flat lined. Twice. And I have no idea why."

"I might," said Sam, appearing in the doorway. "I ran some tests on Daniel's blood and was able to isolate some of the chemicals"

"You were supposed to be sleeping."

"I got about four hours. Or so," Sam admitted with a smile. "Anyway, one of them was sulfenic acid."

As she spoke, Sam set a beaker, an eye dropper and two small bottles down on Daniel's bed side table. She poured the contents of one bottle into the beaker, and Daniel realized in a strangely detached manner that he was about to watch an experiment being performed on his own disembodied blood.

"Now, the sulfenic acid reminded me of something, so I checked the commissary menu."

"And did that tell you that our Danny boy has become a vampire?" Jack did not so much as flinch in the face of the looks Daniel and Janet were shooting him.

"Not exactly, sir," Sam said, and continued. "You see, garlic is an organic compound, obviously, but it's made up of some highly reactive stuff, specifically, a chemical called allicin."

"Which is what makes it a cleanser?" Daniel put forth.

"Exactly." Sam inserted the eye dropper into the second bottle and squeezed it full. "Now, in regular human blood, there is nothing for the allicin to react with, and it breaks down naturally. Daniel, on the other hand, had sulfenic acid, among other things and...."

Sam squeezed one drop of allicin into the beaker. There was a rather spectacular explosion and quite a bit of cursing as they all dodged broken glass.

"Sorry." Sam said.

"I believe I now understand the cause of Daniel Jackson's anaphylactic shock."

"Indeed," Janet breathed.

"Wait a minute," Daniel said. "That reaction was instantaneous. Why didn't I just explode in the commissary?"

"I wondered the same thing," Sam admitted.

"Penicillin." Janet said, more to herself and the file she'd left sitting on her desk than to anyone else. "You were given a routine dosage. It must have just taken out what it thought was another infection."

"Can you make this into a cure, Doctor Fraiser?" Teal'c asked.

"I think so," Janet said, a bit hesitantly. "I mean, we know it works, but Daniel is only alive now because he was literally right on top of a state-of-the-art medical facility when it happened."

Janet had moved across the infirmary while she spoke and ducked into her office for the file with Daniel's altered blood chemistry.

"I'd say that the garlic is the cure, but the sulfenic acid reaction is lethal unless tempered by penicillin," she continued. "I'll run some tests on the other infected samples and I should be able to come up with a cure."

"What about a vaccine?" Daniel asked. "This is one of those things what should be nipped in the bud."

Janet glanced down at the file again. "The cure and the vaccine should be almost the same. Your blood has been changed so that it now matches Esser's. You're immune."

"So there are three types of Sandiem blood then," Sam said. "Those who are Sanoctem, those who aren't Sanoctem yet, and those who never will be."

"Right."

"So, no sunscreen then," Jack said, sounding vaguely disappointed.

"No, I'll do that too," Janet said. "These people share our genome, and an allergy to penicillin is not uncommon."

"What do we do if a Sanoctem is–" Daniel began.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Jack cut him off. "How long, doctor?"

"If everything goes perfectly, I should be able to finish today," Janet said after a moment's thought. "We can work through the night if we have to."

"Make sure you and your people are rested enough for a field trip," Jack said. "If this works, you're taking your show on the road."

------------

to be continued...


	7. Chapter III

He was pretty sure that it was cosmologically impossible given the natural and ordered linear flow of time, but it seemed sometimes to Major Griff , especially now that he was getting older, 0400 came earlier and earlier in the morning. He was up 15 seconds before his alarm went off, of course, wide awake and completely prepared for anything the universe might throw at him, but that didn't mean he had to like it. He sighed, the sound doing absolutely nothing to fill his echoy base quarters. He wasn't that old, was he?

By 0415, Griff and the rest of the SG-3 Marines had gathered in the commissary for their traditional pre-mission breakfast together. All four of them had passed Dr. Fraiser's blood screening, and didn't have to take the allicin/penicillin concoction, but they were to wear the sunscreen, just in case. Captain Abernathy, Griff's scientifically inclined 2IC, was quite excited to examine the data about the Sandiem sun. Griff was not entirely certain if anything useful could come from a sun that had a tendency to turn people into vampires, but stranger things had happened.

SG-1 filed into the commissary around 0430, Dr. Fraiser with them. Janet immediately commandeered two entire pots of coffee. No one questioned why they might need so much. There was not much talk over breakfast, and if Daniel was a little more critical than usual as to what was on his plate, nobody elected to point it out.

By the time it was 0445, SG-1, 2, 3, 5 and 15 and a whole host of support staff had assembled in the 'Gate room. It was an odd assortment of personnel. There were physicists, archaeologists, marines, medics and regular officers to deal with the sun, the culture, the Sanoctem, the cure and any other eventualities that might arise. All told, about 40 people were preparing to depart.

In the Control Room, Sergeant Davis began the dialing sequence. At precisely 0500, the seventh chevron locked and the wormhole kawooshed into existence. Jack and Teal'c went through first, followed by SG-3 and SG-5. Sam and Daniel helped Janet and her team manoeuver their heavily laden FREDs through the 'Gate and then followed them. Janet ordered her teams through, and the rest of the soldiers brought up the rear. As Hammond watched almost half of his field officers and a good portion of base staff disappear, he sent his best wishes with them. Then the wormhole shut, and nothing else could pass through.

------------

Janet Fraiser did not get off-world very often. Whenever she did though, she was always surprised to rediscover that regardless of the years and physical distance between Earth and Where Ever, some things never changed. For instance, the Sandiem children invariably shuddered when she showed them the needle she was about to use to inject them. Then, they would cry and ask for their parents and Alison Crombie, one of Janet's nurses, would show them the stethoscope and have them listen to their heart beat, and Janet would give them the needle while they were looking the other way. Yes, some things never changed.

Janet and Daniel were largely responsible for the inoculations, though Daniel was currently serving as a file clerk. The others of SG-1 were spent their days scouting out Sanoctem camps. Daniel had told an abbreviated version of what happened to him every time someone questioned the validity of Janet's treatment, in Janet's opinion largely overplaying her role in it. In truth, Daniel had largely his own luck to thank, but to hear him tell it, she had personally worked a miracle. Still, it was nice to be appreciated.

Being appreciated by Daniel Jackson was still something she was coming to terms with. She assumed that Daniel had always appreciated her as a doctor, if only from the amount of time she had invested into keeping him in one piece. There was, however, a world of difference between the appreciation one showed one doctor and that which one showed after dinner, during moments stolen at work and while lying on the roof staring up at the night sky.

It had been a long three days since Janet had arrived at the Sandiem village. She had spent all the daylight hours inoculating the townspeople and organizing the SG teams to go out to the other villages. Often, she was up long past The Lighting, working on paperwork and manufacturing more of the vaccine in her makeshift laboratory. Daniel, who understood a great deal about such schedules, had brought coffee with him, and was always on hand to make sure she got at least four hours a night. Still, on the fourth morning, when the roosters crowed and the cathedral bells began to sing out to the morning, Janet had a hard time getting out of bed.

On the table beside her bed lay three things. The same three, in fact, as had been present every morning since her arrival, though she had yet to figure out how he was getting in it without waking her.

The first was a thermos, which she knew contained some of Daniel's carefully packed and jealously hoarded coffee. Jack had come into see her one day, and had smelled it in the air. When he wondered aloud where on Earth she'd got coffee, Daniel had turned slightly pink. Sam had explained afterwards that Daniel shared the coffee with absolutely no one, and that Jack was planning a lengthy interrogation when they all got safely back home.

The second was a basin of water, which went with the third object, the towel. This she knew had no hidden meaning. Water was water, even here. Spending only a few moments in indecision, Janet reached for the thermos and unscrewed the lid.

Her notes lay scattered around the room, covering the tables she had converted into lab benches and the crate of sunscreen which sat in the corner. As far as everyone else knew, no one was dependent upon the screen for protection for the sun. Janet, however, knew that there was one person who was both allergic to penicillin and susceptible to the radiation, and Janet was drinking her coffee. Accordingly, she had taken as many precautions as she could; limiting her exposure to the sun and applying the sunscreen more often than her own recommendation.

Janet set down the empty thermos and made her way to the basin. There were no mirrors here. Daniel had found that odd considering the circumstances. This made putting up her hair a challenge, but she supposed that her hairstyle was probably the least of her problems.

As she glanced down at the towel she was using to mop her sopping face, she realized that she was dead right.

------------

Daniel double checked his field kit, making sure that all of his gear was properly packed. He, the rest of SG-1 and Janet were heading out to look for a group of Sanoctem that SG-3 had been tracking for about two days now. Esser was going with them, partially because they needed a local guide, but also because Esser had spent much of the last four days in Janet's general vicinity and had become a competent field medic. The other SG teams were shipping out as well, each taking local guides and USAF medics.

"Daniel! Get moving already. We're on a bit of a schedule here," Jack yelled from the bottom of the stairs. "You too Fraiser!"

Daniel clipped his pack into place and headed towards Janet's room. The SG teams had been billeted out around the village and Janet had elected to set up shop in the attic of Aeronn's house. Daniel climbed the ladder up to the trap door and knocked habitually before pushing the door open and heaving himself through.

"Janet, are you almost ready? Jack's about ready to–" he trailed off and stared in horror at the pile of bloody kleenexes on one of the tables. "Janet?"

She blinked at him, uncomprehending, then realized what he was worried about.

"It's just a nosebleed, Daniel. Calm down. You know how it goes. Lack of sleep, strange planets, and whole world full of new allergies." Janet calmly picked up the pile and threw it into the fireplace. She hoisted her pack onto her shoulders, spent a few moments rearranging the various straps and took her hat out of her pocket. "Come on, Daniel. You know how the Colonel gets when he had to wait."

She brushed past him and climbed down the ladder without looking back. Daniel stood looking into the fire for almost a full minute before another bellow from below stairs jerked him out of his reverie and he too left the room.

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to be continued…


	8. Chapter IV

The mountains, Sam decided, were far less picturesque up close than they were when viewed

from the village. There was a particularly vicious plant, with thorns almost an inch long, that seemed to enjoy jumping out unexpectedly and sticking itself into passersby. After the first few brushes, most of SG-1 had learned how to avoid them, but the strangled curses Daniel issued every few minutes indicated that he hadn't as yet.

They walked in single file through the underbrush. Esser was in the lead, though the expression on Teal'c face indicated that he was not happy with the arrangement. He said nothing, of course, but he walked as close to her as her pack would allow. After Teal'c came Daniel, who was so quiet, except for his occasional outbursts to the plants, that Sam wondered what was wrong but didn't ask. Behind Sam came Janet and then Jack brought up the rear. Aeronn had not been certain how the Sanoctem dealt with shade, and since the forest was almost completely shaded, Jack was on high alert. The last thing he wanted was a surprise.

Afterwards, Sam always wondered what would have happened if Janet hadn't chosen that particular moment to reach for her water bottle. In the few seconds her attention was divided between the path in front of her and the location of the bottle behind, she tripped on a rock, over corrected and fell. Both Sam and Jack were right beside her almost before she hit the ground, and managed to get her sitting up.

"I have to check the pack," Janet said, a little short of breath. "I have to know if anything was broken."

"What about you, Doc?" Jack asked.

"The fall didn't hurt me, Colonel." Janet struggled with her pack until Sam unclipped it for her. "Thank you."

"Dr. Fraiser," Teal'c said, "You have injured yourself."

"No I haven't, Teal'c. I'm fine."

"Your shirt is ripped and the skin beneath it is abraded."

Esser turned white as a sheet and gasped. Everyone looked at her.

"That's not a cut," Esser choked out. "That's a lesion."

"A what?!" Jack demanded.

"A l-lesion. The second symptom."

"Janet!" Jack was livid. "How long have you known?"

"Two days," Janet said quietly.

"You lied," Daniel said, speaking directly to her for the first time since the attic that morning. "It wasn't a nosebleed or allergies. It was the tears."

"I'm sorry. I – Colonel, they needed me." Janet was apologizing to Jack, but her eyes never left Daniel.

Jack was so angry, he was practically spluttering, unable to channel his fury into words. Sam said nothing, but her eyes were full of concern, and even Teal'c showed signs of worry on his face.

"Dr. Fraiser," Jack said finally in his coldest, most formal tone once he had gotten a hold of himself. "You are hereby ordered to return to the SGC and place yourself under quarantine until Dr. Warner releases you. Esser, you've just been promoted. Take whatever you need from Dr. Fraiser's pack. If you can't carry it, give it to Teal'c. Daniel, you're going home too. I need Carter with me when we find the Sanoctem."

Esser remained stock still until Sam began to look through the pack and as what she would need. Then, she too got to work. Jack pulled Janet to her feet and after a few minutes helped her into her now much lighter pack.

"You remember where you're going?" Sam asked Daniel, who nodded. "Keep in touch with base camp. The Colonel will go crazy if he doesn't know what's happening to her."

"She'll be fine once we get back to Earth, remember." Daniel's words were hopeful, but his voice was that of a man who had been kicked while he was down a few too many times. "All we have to do is go home."

Sam gave him a quick hug and then said good-bye Janet. Jack would not talk to anyone yet, but Sam knew he would cool down eventually. Teal'c and Esser paused in their repacking to luck and farewell, and then Daniel and Janet set off back down the trail.

It was a quiet walk. Daniel was beside himself with worry, having the best understanding of what Janet was going through and Janet wanted to apologize properly, so neither of them said anything. The thorn bushes still made pests of themselves, but Daniel didn't notice them anymore. He was worried and confused and more than a little bit angry. She had looked him in the face and lied, and that upset him more than he was currently prepared to cope with.

He dialed the DHD on autopilot, mechanically pressing each of the chevrons they had all committed to memory in turn until the wormhole opened. For a moment, he stared blankly into the event horizon, and then reached into his pocket for the GDO. Janet started up the ramp, the sunlight dancing around her as it reflected of the watery aperture of the 'Gate. Daniel swallowed around the large lump that was suddenly in his throat, and then passed into the cold that always waited on the other side of the universe.

------------

to be continued…


	9. Part Four Madness

AN: I suppose I should pay homage to CSI here, and the episode called "Justice is Served", which was both my introduction to Porphyria and the only episode of the show I have ever thrown up during. The lesions and madness are genuine symptoms of the disease, the blood lust is an embellishment, I made up the tears and the inferno is, of course, straight out of legend.

**Chapter 4: Madness**

"I only ever saw lesions once," Esser said. It was the first time any of them had spoken since Janet's departure. Jack was still fuming. "It was when I was away on my Ordeal. There was a body in my cave when I got there. Elek had killed himself with his bread knife. He must have done it when the madness hit him. Or, at least I hope he did. There was so much blood."

"What did you do?" Esser's tone was apparently enough to snap Jack out of his sulk.

"I waited for the Dark, and then I buried him."

Teal'c placed a hand on Esser's shoulder, and she smiled half-heartedly up at him. Without really thinking, Jack had set his usual USAF-approved pace. Even with the larger pack, Esser was holding her own. Still, her voice reminded him that this was not a typical USAF mission, even by SGC standards. He stopped walking and signaled for a halt.

"Is there any place remotely defensible around here?" Jack asked. "I don't need cyclopean fortifications, even some trees will be fine."

"Yes," she said after a moment's thought. "There's a cave about half an hour's walk from here. It's empty, or, it should be."

"Should be?"

"I'm sorry, Colonel. I really don't know." Esser took off her pack and sat down on a rock. "We used to use it for the Ordeal, but it's too close to town. There were several...incidents, and now we go further into the hills. But sometimes, when they get desperate, the Sanoctem come this far out of the mountains, so they might have taken shelter from the light there."

"We'll try it, very, very carefully," Jack said. "We'll take a breather and still make it well before night."

Sam dug into her pack for a couple of granola bars and handed one of them to Esser. The girl's pack was a bit of a mess, since it had been almost full even before the addition of Janet's paraphernalia, and they didn't have time for extended excavations.

"What are cyclopean fortifications?" Esser asked, halfway through her bar.

"I–have no idea," Jack admitted.

Sam covered a smile.

"According to Daniel Jackson, the Cyclops were a mythical race of giants who lived on Earth," Teal'c informed them "They had a single eye and were monstrously behaved. Any architecture in Greece which is excessive in size has been described as cyclopean for centuries."

"I knew that."

"There's a good story by a man named Homer about a Cyclops," Sam said, her eyes still shining. "Daniel will lend it to you when we get back. Actually, you might even have a similar story here. Our cultures are very similar."

Esser, her mouth full of granola, only shrugged.

"_Sierra Golf one-niner, this is Sierra Golf three-niner, do you copy?"_ The static on the walkie-talkies was a source of fascination for Esser, and she looked up.

"Sierra Golf three-niner, this is Sierra Golf one-niner, we copy. Over," Jack said into his left shoulder.

"_What is your position? Over._"

"We're – uh," Jack paused. "One moment. Over."

Jack looked inquiringly at Sam who was checking some instrument readings.

"We're five minutes from the rendezvous point, sir," she reported. Esser whispered something in her ear. "About ten minutes from there is the cave we can camp in."

Jack relayed the information along to Major Griff, and picked up his pack.

"Let's move."

------------

Daniel had always been told that doctors make the worst patients, though how anyone could possibly be worse that Jack O'Neill was beyond him. Janet, however, showed no signs of joining the stereotype. She allowed herself to be poked and prodded with such disregard, that even more of Daniel's red flags went up. He sat in the infirmary, barely understanding the medical jargon flying around his head, worried out of his mind.

Finally, Warner finished his examination and Daniel was allowed to stand beside Janet's bed. The lesions, which had been alarming enough in the daylight of the Sandiem planet, were nothing short of horrifying under the fluorescent lights of the infirmary. They covered Janet's arms with a throbbing mottled red and Daniel could not control the shudder that swept through him. Janet moved to hide her arms under the blanket, but he grabbed her hand and wove his fingers through hers.

"I'm sorry, Daniel," she said quietly, mindful that even though Warner had pulled the curtain, sound carried very well in the infirmary. "I didn't think."

"It's okay." She wished, irrationally, that he would yell at her. "Everything will be okay."

"Take me home."

"I have to talk to Hammond. By the time you've finished your treatment, I'll be ready." He smiled, and her heart broke again. "I don't think Warner wants me here while you're – reacting."

He kissed her and turned to go, but she did not relinquish his fingers. He looked at her questioningly.

"When we get home, we need to talk," she said simply.

He nodded and squeezed her hand. "When we get home."

Janet watched him go, knowing that she as still concealing things from him and feeling horrible about it. She knew it was for the best. When she told him, there was going to be a scene, and she didn't want it taking place in the infirmary. Dr. Warner pulled the curtain back.

"Can I go home now?" Janet asked, her tone almost petulant.

"Dr. Fraiser, I really think you should stay for observation."

"Why? I'm not in pain. I'm not contagious. I won't get any worse." Now she was petulant. And she knew it.

"Janet, your blood hasn't been processed yet."

"I know what I've got, doctor."

"We don't know if the lesions will be different from Dr. Jackson's experience. The might –"

"Dr. Warner," Janet cut him off. "I. Am. OK."

"I'd feel better if I could give you something."

"I'd feel worse if you did. The last time I had penicillin, my anaphylaxis was violent. You know as well as I do what will happen if–"

"Yeah, I do." He handed over her street clothes. "Just stay away from garlic."

"Stakes and crosses too?"

"Get out of here, doctor."

------------

Dr. Carter's lab was strictly off limits to the janitorial staff. She cleaned it herself when she was Base side, unless certain Colonels had lost recent bets, but when she was off world, the dust gathered.

Not that anything in the lab minded. The computers rested quietly, except the one she had set to compute pi, and the various pieces of alien technology strewn across the lab bench waited patiently for the return of she who poked, prodded and generally re-wired them.

In the approximate centre of the bench sat the last remaining Sanoctem blood sample. It was sealed in a petri dish, awaiting SG-1's return, at which time, Sam would find the sample, and throw it out, as had been her intent.

If one were to be looking at the sample with a microscope right at this moment, one would have noticed a curious thing. The cells were moving. Moreover, they were moving faster. They moved with a greater and greater velocity until their erratic behaviour caused the slightest of tremors in their enclosure.

One would not have needed any technology at all to see the burst of flame which instantly incinerated the sample of Sanoctem blood. In fact, the burst consumed the oxygen within in the dish so fast and burnt out so quickly, that the security cameras in Dr. Carter's lab never saw a thing.

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to be continued….


	10. Chapter II

**AN: I mentioned it way back in chapter one, but I'll say it again to clear up some confusion: This story is Daniel/Janet ERR. Thank you.**

"How many?" Jack whispered to Major Griff as the two of them lay on their stomachs in the underbrush.

"Abernathy said he saw about two dozen," Griff whispered back. "But he only got a quick look. We cleared out quick when we saw the cave was already occupied."

"What were they doing?" Sam asked.

"Sleeping." It was Esser who answered. "Colonel O'Neill, we have to deal with them now. They'll wake up in about half an hour and they'll be very, very hungry."

"Can we not conceal ourselves in the woods, Esser Aeronnsdaughter?" Teal'c asked. "We have not sufficient time –"

"They'll find us," Esser said unequivocally. "They can track body heat for miles, they can climb trees, and they still hunt like humans. They're mad, yes, but they still think and reason."

"Carter?"

"Seven of us with tranq guns, sir. That's at least three each. Very quickly, and firing from tight quarters."

"The cave mouth is wide enough, Colonel," Griff reported. "If they're still sleeping, we can just line up and shoot them."

Jack looked out across to the cave, visibly weighing his distaste against the necessity of what he was about to order done.

"Alright," he said finally. "Esser, you stay put until we call for you. Griff, you and I will have the middle, my team on the left and yours on the right. I want no noise at all until we're clear, Clear?"

There was a round of nods, and Jack passed his zat to Esser, just in case. They would be using Earth tranquilizers, because Janet had not been certain what effect an electric field would have on the Sanoctem physiology. Esser moved so that her back was against a tree, and began to organize her medical supplies as the SG teams moved out.

The strike was over lightning quick. The Sanoctem had not even been awakened. Jack sent Teal'c back for Esser and the medical equipment while the SG-3 marines put hand restraints on the unconscious Sanoctem. Sam was rummaging through her pack and then she too began to circulate amongst the fallen. She carefully placed a surgical mask over the mouth and nose of each Sanoctem.

"What's that for?" Jack asked.

"To make sure none of them accidentally inhale the garlic, sir."

"But it's liquid, Major. It's not like you're going to accidentally spill it up their noses."

"No, sir. It's so they don't smell it."

"What?"

"Well, when you smell something, it's because very small particles of whatever it is you're smelling have gone up your nose and triggered your olfactory receptors," Sam explained as Teal'c and Esser entered the cave. "For example, some people are so allergic to peanuts, that the minute amount in their noses can trigger their allergic reaction. Janet was worried that this would work the same way."

"Wait," said Jack, holding up his hands. "Are you telling me that when I smell manure – "

"Eprem!" Esser cried out and ran across the cave. She fell to her knees next to one of the supine Sanoctem. "Oh my Eprem..."

If Sam had any doubts that Esser was old enough to know she was in love, they were banished as the girl reached out and touched the horrible scars on Eprem's face without so much as a flinch. Esser spent a few moments silently exulting that Eprem was alive, and then got down to business.

"Major Carter, we'll start here," she said crisply, voicing an authority she was not entirely sure she had. "I'll need one dose and the paddles. Just in case."

"You can do this, Esser," Sam said, passing over the materials. "Janet...had great faith in you."

Esser nodded and took a deep breath. She took the needle and prepped it as though she'd been handling such equipment her entire life. She carefully located a vein in Eprem's arm, inserted the needle and steadily pushed the injection through.

The reaction was immediate. Esser barely had time to withdraw the needle before Eprem's whole body jerked and he went into seizure. Again, Sam was taken off guard by Esser's manner as the young girl watched her almost betrothed writhe on the cave floor, fully aware, it seemed that there was nothing she could do, so panicking was useless. As quickly as they started, Eprem's convulsions stopped. Esser snapped into action, feeling for a pulse. She tried his wrist, then his neck and looked up at Sam with the first hints of panic in her eyes.

"Paddles charged!" Sam said as she handed them over. "Clear."

Esser shocked him once and nothing happened. She was chanting under her breath in Latin, and Sam realized that she was praying as she battled to save her patient. Teal'c, Jack and SG-3 were standing a respectable distance away, but all were watching holding their breaths.

Esser shocked him again, and felt for a pulse.

"He's alive!" she announced, her relief evident in her voice. "He'll be okay."

"What now?" Jack asked as Esser looked around the cave and attempted to get her breath back.

"I do it again. Twenty-three more times."

------------

Janet wiped the steam off of the mirror in Daniel's bathroom. She'd been absolutely terrified that the hot water was going to make the lesions on her arms and legs sting, and when it hadn't, she'd made the water as hot as she could stand. She looked at herself, tentatively running the fingers of the hand not holding the towel in place over the inflamed red marks on her arm. She wondered if they would turn white with time, or if she'd be wearing long sleeves for the rest of her life to cover up the angry red marks.

They didn't hurt, much, anymore, but they did itch. Warner had given her something for it, but she had a history of reacting to medicinal creams, so she hadn't tried it yet. Her mentoring physician, from back in med-school, had found it incredibly amusing, cosmically, that his best student should be so allergic to most of what she prescribed her patients. An oxymoron in a lab coat.

Unable to restrain herself, Janet dug her fingers into her skin. Pain shot through her and she cried out before she could help herself.

"Janet?" Lord, was he waiting right outside the door? "Janet, are you alright?"

"Yes, Daniel. I'm fine." The throbbing itch returned, and Janet reached for the cream. "You can come in if you'd like."

He opened the door and came in quietly. He sat down on the hamper, which creaked in largely ignored protest, and watched as she put the cream on her arms and legs. She craned her neck over her shoulder in a failed attempt to see her own back. Daniel took the jar from her and began to rub cream where she couldn't reach.

"Does Warner think that these will fade now that you're back?" Daniel asked, still focused on the task at hand.

"Well, they won't get any worse. The radiation source is gone."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know."

Daniel set the jar down on the counter and turned her around to face him.

"The tears stopped after I had the treatment. And mine was accidental. I'm sure the lesions will clear up too."

"I didn't take the treatment, Daniel." His eyes widened. "I'm allergic to penicillin."

Daniel's entire body seemed to sag.

"But don't worry, I won't get worse. I'll still look – "

"I don't care about that!" Daniel burst out, his tone uncharacteristically sharp. "I care about you! There must be another – "

If Janet had still been facing the mirror, she might have understood why Daniel suddenly released her shoulders. She might have had the same terror she saw in his eyes in her own. But Janet could not see the creeping marks, tearing their way through her skin, and it was not until after a few moments wondering what on Earth Daniel was so afraid of, that the pain of her transformation sent her crashing to the floor, writhing in agony, and she began to understand.

------------

"Just make sure that she eats something when she wakes up."

"I will, O'Neill," Teal'c replied, looking down at the girl who slept like the dead a few feet away from the crackling fire.

"OK. I am going to coordinate with Griff. I didn't realize there were going to be so many of them. We're going to need more local help to get these people home."

Teal'c nodded. It had been a long six days. Almost two hundred and fifty Sanoctem had been found, and they had worked tirelessly to treat them. No one, however, had worked as hard as Esser. She had personally treated every single victim they had found, often working all night after walking all day to locate her patients in the first place. SG-3 had been taking it in turns to stay with the healed and then escort them back to the town. It had been Abernathy who had suggested using the Sandiem to help, but the idea was easier said than done. Those who weren't terrified of the woods at night were those just reunited with loved ones, but a small force of volunteers had marshaled.

None of the SGC personnel except, evidently, Dr. Fraiser, who had packed almost twice as many treatments as were needed, was prepared for the sheer number of victims. Sam had pointed out, on about the third day of their expedition when exhaustion was just beginning to make Jack exceptionally irritable, that they were dealing with a quarter of the population, after all. The seven or eight seconds of complete silence which followed her statement was finally ended by the hysterical giggling of an even then almost worn out Esser.

Now, after almost a week, SG-1 was finished. Their area had, as far as they could determine, been swept clean of Sanoctem. As soon as Esser woke up, they would pack up and escort this last group safely home.

------------

After the first few times, he had learned that it was better now to wake her. As torturous as it was to watch her flinch and writhe in the grips of her nightmares, it was worse to see those wakened eyes haunted by horrors she had seen but could not remember. No, it was better to let her wake herself up, because if she remembered, she could tell him, and then he could take her in his arms, brush her hair out her face, and tell her it was all just a dream.

The nightmares had begun once every inch of her body had been covered in lesions. Confined to a VIP room on the base, Janet had dealt with her fears by talking with Daniel and punching MacKenzie in the nose. Twice. The good doctor had not repeated his attempted intervention. Over the last six days though, Janet's hallucinations had left her dreams and manifested themselves in every aspect of her waking life. The cement room that quarantined her had become her own private dwelling in a world of unspeakable demons.

Janet had always been afraid of the dark. He never would have expected this. He did know that her nightmares predated this particular experience. Hell, they all had them, and she knew it; it was her signature on their sleeping pill prescriptions. But whatever terror he faced in his subconscious paled in comparison with what he had physically experienced in the waking world. She had no such means of comparison. Before she was ill, he knew that her dreams had centred largely on emergencies when she couldn't save them, or worse, when she was forced to choose which one of them to save. Those he could deal with by reminding her that she was competent and they were lucky. Now, she screamed incoherently in gibberish and woke sobbing in terror, reaching blindly for him.

In those first few minutes of wakefulness, she was completely lucid. It was in those moments when she would beg him to turn out the lights so he wouldn't see the horror that was her face; when she would calmly tell him what arrangements to make for Cassie; when he could kiss her and not worry about getting his eyes plucked out.

The dream was playing itself out. Janet's breath was coming faster and she was moaning as though something were after her. Letting out a blood curdling scream that raised the hair on the back of Daniel's neck, she sat up, gasping for air and clawing at whatever horror she was escaping from.

"Hey, hey, it's okay." Daniel took her in his arms and she clung to him. "It's okay. It was just a dream."

"I hate this," she said, still shuddering. "I can't do this anymore."

"Then take the garlic."

"You know better than anyone what happens without the right amount of penicillin, and I know exactly what will happen to my bronchial tubes. If I take it, I'll die."

"You are dying!" He said it a bit louder than he'd intended and she drew away from him. "I'm sorry."

"I was so sure Sam was right! It made so much sense! But it turns out that all that saved you was the commissary menu rotation. Classic Daniel Jackson luck."

Unable to help himself, he began to laugh at her. She stared at him for a few moments before she too began to laugh. He could almost hear the snap in her brain that indicated her switch from coherency to madness. Her laughter became shrill and hollow and she tried to fly at him, but the restraints that both of them had forgotten caught her back in time. The laughter turned to screams, loud keening shrieks of terror and longing. A pair of orderlies and Dr. Warner rushed into the room, Warner barking orders and preparing a sedative. Daniel was forcibly removed.

The door swung shut, muting the shrieks now contained within and the corridor filled with choked sobs as Daniel Jackson collapsed against the cold metal frame and sank to the ground.

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to be continued….


	11. Chapter III

"Daniel Jackson to the Briefing Room. Dr. Daniel Jackson to the Briefing Room right away, please."

Daniel put his glasses back on. General Hammond was a patient and understanding man, but even Daniel was not going to make him repeat the page for a third time. As Daniel mechanically navigated the path between Janet's 'quarters' and the Briefing Room, he noticed that the halls were strangely empty. This was perfectly acceptable, given that approximately half of the SGC was currently out on a mission, but the echo of his steps seemed a bit louder than was customary.

Daniel entered the Briefing Room to find both General Hammond and Dr. Warner waiting for him. He took a seat across from Warner and accepted the cup of coffee Hammond pushed him with a grateful nod.

"Dr. Jackson, we received a communication from Aeronn," Hammond began gently. "He said that his people might be able to treat Janet in ways we can't. They'll help her...if we send her back."

Daniel said nothing. He didn't even splutter. Hammond realized then how desperate the situation was.

"I talked with one of the returned medical teams," Warner took over. "I think Aeronn was talking about a protein in the bloodstream on animals on their side can be utilized to – "

"He said that?" Daniel interrupted.

"Not in so many words, no." Warner shifted uncomfortably. "Aeronn doesn't really know what he's talking about, Daniel. Medically speaking. He did say that their was something in the village that will help, and the med team thought he meant the protein."

"Can't they send us some?"

"Daniel, son, if Janet stays here, she'll die in that room."

"In a cage, you mean, General."

"I know it sounds bad, but if we send her back to Sandiem – "

"She'll die an animal."

"She _is_ an animal," Warner said, wincing again. "I'm sorry, but – "

"I understand, doctor." Daniel's tone was frigidly cold. "General, when do we leave?"

------------

The sedative they used on Janet had a name eight syllables long. Daniel wasn't sure what it did, but somehow it rendered Janet capable of walking and not very much else. Aeronn, Zephrey and Maram met Daniel and the medical team that accompanied him at the base of the Stargate. It was dark, and the three Sandiem stood without fear in the blackness, but Daniel couldn't help the flood of bitterness that swept through him.

"Daniel Jackson," Aeronn intoned. "I grieve that we meet again under such circumstances."

Daniel nodded his head in reply, not trusting himself to speak.

"Dear Janet," Maram took Janet's hand without any sign of apprehension. "We owe you so much, and now we are in your debt doubly so."

Janet did not react at all. She did not even blink. Maram kissed her, and took her arm to guide her through the forest.

"Come then," Zephrey said, holding up his torch so they could follow him, and they began their walk towards the town.

This time, as Daniel crossed the clearing towards the cathedral, it was framed by a thousand stars instead of overwhelmed by the light of only one. He watched his shoes instead, dividing his attention between Janet and the ground in front of him, completely ignoring the architecture which had so fascinated him. At length, they passed through the gate. The streets were deserted, but the lights in the houses were merry.

When Daniel finally looked up, they had completely crossed the town. Zephrey was unlocking a small door, and Aeronn gestured Daniel and Janet forward. Daniel took one look over Zephrey's shoulder and took several steps back, dragging the non-responsive Janet with him.

"What is this?" he burst out.

"It's a cloister," Aeronn said. "We come here to pray in isolation."

"It has an east facing window. And no curtains!"

"We know," Maram said quietly. "Daniel, if we do nothing, she'll get worse. She'll go mad, and cease to be the woman you know. She'll be a monster, and someone will have to kill her. If we put her in here, that someone will not be you."

"What about treatment? Blood proteins?" Daniel demanded. "You said you could treat her with something in the village."

"This is the treatment, Daniel," Zephrey said. "It's the only humane way."

"No!"

Daniel had heard Jack explain what military autopilot felt like. He knew what regular autopilot felt like, having spent time on it, but his first instinct was not usually to go for his gun. This time, however, he drew without a second thought."

"Daniel Jackson!" Zephrey shouted. "What are you doing?"

"Back - back away. Get away from us!" Daniel yelled. "Crombie, set your med kit down. Now!"

Alison Crombie, knowing full well that her med kit was the best stocked, set it down. Daniel, his gun still out, picked up the kit in his other hand and wrapped that arm around Janet's waist.

"Keep away from us." Daniel warned as he backed himself and Janet into the shadows.

Zephrey stood, flabbergasted in front of the cloister. The medical team looked to Alison, but she waved them off with a small shake of her head. Aeronn moved to follow Daniel down the alley.

"Aeronn! No!" Maram called out, bringing her husband up short. "Not in the dark. Not in the dark."

------------

Daniel, practically dragging Janet behind him, made his way up and down every dark alleyway he could find, eluding all signs of people. He made his way to the sally port next to the main gate. As he and Janet stood in the shadows, Zephrey and a large party of men marched out through the gate. Daniel held his breath. Janet moaned, and he put his hand over her mouth to silence her. She struggled only minimally. The company passed by and headed towards the woods and the Stargate.

Daniel's mind, which he had more or less regained control of, raced as he tried to think of another option. He had, as far as he could determine, seven hours until sunrise. He pulled Janet through the sally port and looked around. _"They go up to caves which can be sealed from the inside."_ Daniel put his gun away, took the med kit in one hand and Janet's hand in the other, and set off for the mountains.

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to be continued….


	12. Part Five Blood Lust

AN: And this is the chapter where the science came back to bite me…no pun intended! Warning: This chapter gets a little…freaky.

**Blood Lust**

"He what?!"

What had begun as an innocent inquiry into the current state of Janet's health and the condition of the newly returned villagers had spiraled rapidly out of control. In hindsight, Sam realized, there had been plenty of red flags. They just hadn't seen them in time. Aeronn and Maram were uncharacteristically composed when they received Esser, and Zephrey had babbled, yes babbled, about the number of young people who had returned. Furthermore, Alison Crombie whom, to the best of Sam's knowledge was supposed to be Earthside, had her very best game face on and was exerting an iron, if silent, control over her team.

Jack had given his report, interrupted often by Sam, who corrected his pronunciations, and Teal'c, who complimented Esser's work and then apprehensively dropped the question _'Have you heard from Daniel lately?'_. Aeronn, looking incredibly uncomfortable, had told him an abbreviated version of the story.

If Jack had missed the signs of the impending incident, he definitely did not miss that Crombie wanted a word with him, alone, very, very badly. It was plainly evident that Aeronn was leaving something out, and Sam could only wonder at what it must have been to drive Daniel so far off the edge. It was Maram who provided a way out, when she finally answered Esser's insistent questions about Eprem, and the four Sandiem set off to see him.

"Crombie, what the hell happened here?" Jack asked almost before Esser, her parents and uncle had made it to the corner.

"Dr. Fraiser got worse, Colonel," Alison said. "It turns out that once exposed the virus continues to increase in number and infection, regardless of continued exposure to the radiation."

"But all of my experiments...none of them burnt." Sam broke in.

"We ran a few of them again," Crombie said. "Those which had the Sanoctem protein and were not exposed to the radiation still became more infected. They just didn't explode."

"I never used a microscope. I should have...." Sam petered out and then straightened. "So Janet went mad?"

"Yes. That's when Aeronn contacted us. He said he had a treatment." Alison's voice hardened. "His treatment was a cloister; a small, locked room with east facing windows and no curtains."

"And that's when Daniel blew up," Jack surmised.

"Yes sir," Alison replied. "He took Janet and my med kit with him. I had the best kit, sir, but even that..."

"How much of a start?"

"Around midnight, sir. Almost eight hours."

Jack squinted up. The sun had been up for almost an hour. Where would Daniel go?

"Can you track them, Teal'c?"

"Daniel Jackson is moving quickly with a companion who is either non-responsive or resistant," Teal'c pointed out. "I believe you could track them, O'Neill."

Jack glared at him, but then gave up the attempt at any emotion that did not involve large amounts of worry.

"Zephrey took men to the 'Gate, sir. They've been there ever since. Dr. Jackson is still on the planet."

"The caves!" Sam burst out. "They can be sealed and they're safe. He went to the caves."

"All right then," Jack said. "Trip's not over yet, campers. We're going spelunking."

------------

It had taken six hours to reach the cave. Of course, Daniel had only the vaguest idea where he was going, he was being hunted, it was dark, and the drug Janet was on was wearing off. Still, he managed to find them a cave and seal the door well before sunrise.

Janet had been silent since he'd shut the door, merely sitting slumped against the wall. He lit a fire in the hearth and discovered that the Sanoctem had designed the caves in such a way that the light was reflected and amplified. By lighting the fireplace, Daniel had, essentially, flicked the switch for the whole room. This realization, however, was quickly muffled by something else.

After Abydos, Daniel recognized a Goa'uld naquadah mine when he saw it. And currently, he was sealed up inside one. That explained a lot. The door, the light, the ventilation; all were of Goa'uld of construction, built before the abandonment of their slaves. The shaft extended past the light, but Daniel could not see its end, assuming it even had one.

"Sam's going to love this," he mused aloud, half to himself and half out of habit to Janet.

"Love what?" came the completely unexpected reply, and he flew to her side.

"Are you okay?"

"For the moment. I guess coming down off the drug is like waking up: the screws go back into place." She shook her head and winced. "Where are we?"

Daniel quickly told her everything that had come to pass. He was about to ask Janet another question when a flash of fear in her eyes made him stop.

"Daniel, you have to go."

"Why?"

"Because the Blood Lust is next."

"I know."

"Daniel, go!" she begged.

"If I go, you'll die of starvation." How could he be so calm?

"Daniel!" Her eyes widened when she realized his intent.

"You need a specific protein," he explained, still in that inexplicably calm tone. "Earth animals don't have it. The ones on this planet do. And so do I."

"Daniel, no."

"I love you, Janet."

"No!" she screamed.

But she couldn't stop him. Some instinct in her she could not fight hungered for blood and knew that without him, she would never get it. Daniel slid his knife out of his pocket, set his teeth and drew the blade across his wrist.

With a feral howl, Janet was on him. Her mouth sealed around his wound, desperately sucking to pull out as much blood as she could. He was completely unprepared for the ferocity of her attack, but he did not fight her. As the life flowed out of him and into her, Daniel collapsed against the wall, pulling her with him. His last thought, before giving into the excruciating blackness, was that maybe the Goa'uld didn't know so much about light after all.

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to be continued….


	13. Chapter II

It was the third time Sam swung out at an offending branch and missed before Jack called her on it. Sam generally had good aim, but the knife she carried was sharp and Jack didn't fancy catching it between the eyes.

"Carter?"

"Yes sir." She sheathed the knife, completely aware of his reason for speaking.

"Hey, I hate this as much as the next guy, but I also like my skin right where it is."

"Sorry sir," she sighed in frustration. "It's just...I don't understand. I hate not understanding."

"Welcome to my world." That got a bit of a smile out of her.

"It should have stopped. Janet had no more exposure."

"What about those Nintendoes?"

"Sir?"

"I believe that O'Neill is referring to the phenomena known as neutrinos, Major Carter," Teal'c said from behind them.

Sam thought for a few minutes. Jack could hear the wheels spinning.

"Neutrinos would penetrate the caves," she pointed out, half to herself. Then her eyes widened and she reached for the naquadah detector. "Oh wow."

"Carter?"

"The naquadah, sir, it's all over the place."

"Would naquadah prevent the passage of neutrinos?" Teal'c asked.

"It's the only explanation I can think of. There's an awful lot of it. But that still doesn't explain how the infection worsens in the caves here, let alone how Janet got worse on Earth."

"You ever bake cookies, Major?" he knew she had, but he forgot what memories were associated with that, and when he remembered, he plowed on quickly. "Did you ever forget to add the baking powder?"

"No."

"Well I did. I still had cookies. They were still edible. They were just a little...unenthusiastic in the oven."

"So, you're saying Janet just needed the baking soda?" Jack could actually feel his eyes glaze over as Sam launched into full science mode. "Sir, that doesn't make any sense."

"Well no, but it was the best I could think of."

"Madness is the full extent of the disease without external aid," Teal'c summarized. "Inferno is only reached under catalyst. In this case, the sun."

"It's the spark, the last ingredient to set off rapid oxidation." Sam concluded.

"So we can prevent Fraiser from burning up, but we can't stop her from getting to sub-critical?" Jack asked.

"Yes sir."

"How does this help us?"

Sam stopped walking and turned to look back at him. There wasn't a whole lot of confidence in that look.

------------

"Daniel? Daniel!" The hoarse whispering was accompanied by an almost frantic shaking. "Daniel, please wake up."

Daniel groaned, then opened his eyes slowly. A full spectrum of emotion flashed through them, and he sat up as quickly as he could. He found himself strangely unable to support his head, and sagged back against the wall of the cave.

"How are you?" he managed to grate out.

"I feel surprisingly alive, actually," Janet replied. "Which is strange, because I had the most appalling..."

Janet trailed off as Daniel raised his freshly scarred wrist to adjust his glasses.

"Janet?"

"Oh God. I really did it."

"Janet, it's okay."

"No, Daniel it is not okay. I drank your blood."

"I prefer to think of it as my helping you stay alive."

"Daniel, stop. Stop trying to make me feel better. Stop hoping. Stop...just please stop." Her voice was becoming hysterical, high pitched. The madness was closing in again, bringing the blood lust with it.

"Janet, listen to me." Daniel took her face between his hands, ignoring the scars and focusing on her eyes. "I've dosed myself with a sedative. I won't fight back and increase my own trauma, and you'll be knock out before you can gut me."

"I'll take too much."

"That's why I have bone marrow, Janet. I'll recover."

"What if you don't? What if I kill you?"

He kissed her, having failed to find a worded explanation for his actions. She stiffened and started to draw away, but then relaxed and pushed herself so close to him, he could barely extricate his hands from her. But he only needed one, and it inexorably made its way towards the pocket where his knife was sheathed. The small part of Janet's mind that was still rational in spite of the kiss and the disease realized too late what he was doing.

Janet's eyes somehow remained sane and desperate for escape from her own body for a few minutes after the smell of Daniel's blood again filled the air. But then the madness and lust took them over and the temptation of blood became to great and she descended upon him again.

------------

"Why don't they attack each other?"

"What?"

"The Sanoctem, sir," Sam clarified. "Why don't they attack each other?"

Jack stopped pacing and looked back over the valley. They'd been walking almost four hours how, and the trail was starting to get really annoying. Daniel, it appeared, had been doing a lot of backtracking. Teal'c surmised that the erratic nature of the trail was not Daniel's attempt to throw off the tracking party, but concluded that Daniel was looking for something and was having trouble finding it. After the third dead end, Teal'c had tactfully suggested that he take the next one by himself. He fooled no one, and Jack let him go.

"I have no idea."

"But it doesn't make any sense, sir," Sam persisted. "Why would they risk attacking the Sandiem? Why wouldn't they just kill each other?"

"Moral code?" Sam glared at him. "I don't know, Carter. Crombie mentioned something about proteins while you were sending a message back to Hammond."

"Proteins."

"Yeah. When Aeronn told them about the 'treatment', Warner thought he meant a protein that was only found here."

Sam suddenly turned very green and the next thing Jack knew, she was on her knees and he was holding her head while she vomited. She wiped her mouth, horribly embarrassed, and took the water bottle when he offered it.

"Carter?"

"They drink blood, sir," she stated.

"I know that, Carter."

"What I mean, sir," she swallowed, her eyes bugging out slightly. "Is that the protein they need probably comes from the blood."

"And?"

"There's only one difference between the blood of a Sanoctem and the blood of a Sandiem. One protein is missing from the Sanoctem," Sam said thickly. "And Daniel didn't have it until after he was cured."

Jack was starting to feel a little sick himself.

"Do you think he knows, sir?"

"Oh, he knows all right," Jack said grimly and reached for his radio. "Teal'c? You there?"

"_I am indeed, O'Neill._"

"Any luck?"

"_I believe I have located the cave._"

"Perfect. Stay put. We'll be along shortly." Jack switched channels. "Sierra-Golf three niner, do you read?"

"_Yes sir_." Major Griff's voice buzzed.

"Griff, grab a medical team and get up here. Bring a lot of saline. And send someone back to the 'Gate with a message for Hammond and Warner. Tell them we're going to need a lot of whatever Daniel's blood type is standing by when we got home."

"_Yes sir. What's going on up there?_"

"I don't really have that kind of time right now, Major. I'll brief you get here."

"_Yes sir. Over and out._"

"Let's move, Carter."

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to be continued….


	14. Chapter III

Jack and Sam entered a small clearing and found Teal'c examining a door in the side of the mountain. It was massive, and even Jack could tell that it had been altered at least since its construction. At some point, the mechanism which opened the door from the outside had been crudely chiseled off, and a large stone cross had been affixed to the lintel.

"It is of Goa'uld construction, O'Neill," Teal'c reported without turning around. "It is very old."

"Can you open it?"

"The mechanism is gone. It can only be opened from the inside."

"Can you blast it with your staff weapon?"

"No I cannot," Teal'c replied. "I have been attempting to communicate with Daniel Jackson, but he will listen to neither my calls nor my knocks."

"We have reason to believe that Daniel's not in any condition to open the door," Sam said. "Can I hot wire it somehow?"

Teal'c gestured to the hopelessly mangled remains. Sam looked at them apprehensively, and then fell to work. While she fiddled and cursed and prised at the fused control plate, Jack explained the latest development to Teal'c.

"Sir, I think I've got it," Carter announced after about fifteen minutes.

"Open'er up."

"I really don't know if that's a good idea, sir."

"Why not?"

"Doctor Fraiser can no longer be exposed to the sun, O'Neill. This cave faces southwest," Teal'c pointed out. "If we open the door, she will undergo Inferno."

"An if we don't, we're leaving Daniel inside with someone who will _eat_ him," Jack replied a good deal less sedately.

"Sir," Sam said uncomfortably, "Daniel knew all this before he shut the door."

Jack made a face and kicked the door. The door was made of naquadah, Sam could feel her blood singing when she got closer to it. She could not feel Jack's toes at the moment, but she knew that they were in a significant of discomfort, none of which showed up in Jack's face.

"Fine," he barked shortly. "Major, the instant the sun is gone, open that door. Not one minute later."

Sam nodded and glanced at Teal'c. Teal'c understood her unvoiced question and nodded shortly.

"O'Neill, I believe we should return to the main path and wait for Major Griff. The trail is not well marked, and we wish for SG-3 to find their way with all speed."

Jack glanced at Sam, fully aware that he was being handled. He nodded and sighed, and went with Teal'c back towards the path. Sam stayed in the glade willing the shadows to lengthened and waiting for the darkness to come.

------------

Daniel couldn't move. He had never been in so much pain in his entire life. Vaguely, he recalled ribbon devices and torture sticks. Even passing through the wormhole was nothing compared to this. He was in a cave, but he could not remember why, or how he had got there. His head rested on something soft, something familiar, but he couldn't place that either.

"_You are my sunshine,  
__My only sunshine."_

The voice was thin in the darkness. Thin and weak and mad and infuriatingly familiar. Why would his brain not work? Why could he only ask questions and not find the answers? This was not how things usually were.

"_You make me happy  
__When skies are gray."_

There was an irony in that song. A cruel, horrible, aching joke which, if he'd had the strength would have made him laugh or cry. He hadn't and did neither. He could only dwell on how damn familiar the song was, and how he should know what it was.

"_You'll never know dear  
__How much I love you."_

A hand passed over his face. The hand was familiar as well, but strangely alien. Maybe this was hell for scientists, a place where there are only questions and never answers. The hand was covered with alien scarring, but he liked it. This was comfort. He remembered that much.

"_Please don't take my  
__Sunshine away."_

There were noises coming from the door. He remembered shutting the door, shutting out something horrible and wondered if he should be worried that it sounded like the door was going to open soon. He lost consciousness with none of his questions answered, and Janet, trapped in her own sedated hell of blood and darkness, prayed for light, for salvation. And for death.

------------

"Fire in the hole!"

Despite Sam's best efforts with technological tinkering, it was C-4 that finally got the door to open. Sam had been able to release the clamps by fiddling with the door mechanism, but it simply would not open. Jack had rigged the smallest amount of C-4 he could to the door, and they'd all held their breath during the explosion, trusting that the mountain would remain above their heads. Of course, there had been a significant delay, which Jack had chafed at and Sam felt personally responsible for. He had restrained from making any disparaging comments, which had only served to worry Sam more; Jack only shut up when he was really worried.

"Clear!" announced Major Griff from inside. "Crombie, you'd better get in here."

The medical team rushed into the cave, and SG-1 followed. The sight that met their eyes was not a pleasant one. Daniel's fire had burnt down to embers and when Abernathy rekindled it and light again filled the cave, Sam was not the only one who gasped.

Daniel lay on the floor, horribly pale even in the ruddy glow of the firelight. Janet sat leaning up against the wall. Jack could hear her humming softly as she stroked Daniel's face, and the light in her eyes reflected madness.

"Dr. Fraiser? Janet?" Alison said calmly. "I need to look at Dr. Jackson."

"Janet did not move as Alison knelt down and began to examine Daniel. Griff had looked to Jack for permission, and at the Colonel's reluctant nod, leveled his tranq gun at Janet. Just in case.

"Crombie?" Jack asked.

"He's lost a lot of blood, Colonel." Alison wrapped Daniel's wrist with a pressure bandage as she spoke.

"I was expecting Janet to be a little more...volatile," Sam admitted, quietly.

Janet had not moved since they entered the cave, though her hand continued to stroke Daniel's face. She had ceased humming when they began to talk, but she had not looked at any of them or otherwise made any sign that she was aware of their presence.

"I believe this may be the reason," Teal'c said, holding up a bottle. "It appears that Daniel Jackson has sedated himself."

He passed the bottle to Alison, who read the label and turned very pale.

"Colonel, we have to get them home immediately. We'll carry them on the stretchers, and we should probably restrain Janet in case the drug wears off, but we have to go now."

Jack knew when to defer to a lesser ranked authority, and he stepped back to allow the med team to assemble the stretchers.

"Wait," said Sam. "Can't you inoculate Janet here?"

"I can't, Major Carter," Alison said heavily. "Dr. Fraiser is allergic to penicillin. The treatment would kill her."

No one spoke for a few minutes as the med team put Janet on the first stretcher and SG-3 started for the 'Gate with her. Sam's mind was full of radiation and cures and sunscreen, all of which were useless to help her friend, and she stood like a stone in the centre of the cave. As Teal'c and Jack lifted the stretcher carrying Daniel, he moaned and Sam flew to his side.

"Janet?" he said desperately.

"It's okay, Daniel," Sam said, taking his hand and feeling guilty for lying through her teeth. "We've come to take you home."

"Can't...penicillin," Daniel rasped.

"We know, Daniel," Jack said gently as he and Teal'c moved to the carry position.

"Alternate...alternate..."

"Alternate what?" Sam asked, but Daniel's head had lolled to the side as he lost consciousness again.

"Come on, Carter," Jack said as he and Teal's lifted the stretcher. "He can tell us when we get home."

With the medical team preceding them, SG-1 came out of the cave and began their long starlit journey back to the Stargate.

------------

to be continued….


	15. Part Six Inferno

I wrote this story over eight months on four continents, six airplanes, five trains, one bus, two subway systems, two different notebooks and at least four computers, and it was not until I was half way through this chapter that I realized I had a way out of the corner I had been so excellently painting myself into since way back in chapter one. It's been quite the ride, and it ain't over yet!

**Inferno**

There was chaos in the 'Gate room. This was not altogether unusual. The chaos this time, however, was not military, nor was it technical. Instead, a host of men and women in white lab coats swarmed the room, their footsteps drowned out by the voices of Alison Crombie as she gave her report, and Dr. Warner as he issued orders to his teams. Janet was unresponsive as they carried her out of the 'Gate room on a gurney, but Warner's main team fought to stabilize Daniel right there on the ramp. Jack, Sam, Teal'c and SG-3 had stepped on to the back half of the ramp as soon as the wormhole had dissipated, giving the teams as much room as they could. From their vantage point they watched the scene unfold, feeling rather useless.

General Hammond waited for Warner to get all of his people out of the 'Gate room before he left the Control room and headed out on to the floor to talk to Jack.

"Colonel, report!"

"We tracked them to the caves, sir," Jack began. "Carter tells me it's the old naquadah mine. Daniel, uh, donated blood to Janet and sedated himself. He's in worse shape than she is Short term, anyway."

"We'll debrief immediately," Hammond said, turning on his heel. "I want to know everything now, so that we can all get down to the infirmary as soon as possible."

SG-1 and 3 smartly followed their commanding officer out of the now completely silent 'Gate room.

------------

Despite the near desperation on the part of Jack, Sam and, presumably, Teal'c, the debriefing took almost two hours. During this time, Jack had done almost none of the talking, instead shredding piece after piece of the note paper in front of him until Sam had reached across the table and taken it away from him. Hammond was about to release them, when Dr. Warner came up the stairs into the Briefing Room.

"Yes Doctor?" Hammond said as three heads snapped to face the newcomer.

"We've, um…." Warner seemed unprepared for the intensity of the attention he was receiving from SG-1. "We've stabilized Dr. Jackson."

All four people at the table sighed in relief and Teal'c smiled. Warner took a half-step back towards the stairwell and continued.

"He lost a lot of blood, but we've completed the transfusion. He should wake up in about half an hour. Janet," Warner paused. "Janet is a little more of a challenge."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Jack's relieved smile had been replaced with a glowering frown.

"I don't know." Warner sounded completely defeated. "If she's in a coma, she'll require 24 hour care and if she's awake, she'll be completely mad, in a fair amount of pain and extremely violent."

"Surely there is another alternative, Doctor Warner." Teal'c said.

"If there was, I never would have sent her back to that…planet in the first place!"

"Alternative," Sam mused. "Alternative! Sir, Doctor, if a person is allergic to penicillin, but requires an antibiotic, what do you give them?"

"In Janet's case, anything not ending with '-cillin' will suffice, but it is not as strong."

"Sir, I – "

"What ever you and Dr. Warner need, Major," Hammond said just as Jack opened his mouth to ask a question. Hammond cut him off too. "Jack, you and Teal'c go to the infirmary. Keep me in the loop people. Dismissed."

During his time at the SGC, Teal'c had noticed that Jack often used Sam as a walking, talking barometer to gauge the pressure of life or death situations. If the Major was smiling, then things would be socially awkward, but end up all right. If the Sam was abrupt, then it was going to be a bumpy ride, but something scientifically unsound would pull them out of it. Teal'c had never seen this particular expression on Sam's face before, but he recognized it. It was pure, unadulterated determination, and God help whoever got in her way.

------------

The results were less than encouraging. If there was enough Erythromycin to cancel out the garlic, there wasn't enough garlic to affect the blood cells, and if there was enough garlic to affect the blood cells, the erythromycin wasn't enough to keep the cells from exploding. It had been half and hour, Sam had blown up three test tubes and she and Warner were having no luck. Sam had just sacrificed a fourth beaker to the cause when the phone rang.

Warner brushed the glass into the hazmat container as Sam spoke on the phone. For a physicist, Warner had to admit that Sam was a fairly competent serologist, but even beginner's luck wasn't helping.

"Daniel's awake," Sam reported.

Warner looked around at their failed and detonated experiments.

"Let's go see him then."

------------

"How are you feeling Dr. Jackson?" Warner asked.

"Weak as a kitten, light as a feather, pounding head, throbbing hand," Daniel rhymed off quickly, "Can I go home now?"

Warner elected not to dignify that with a response, instead fiddling with Daniel's IV and abandoning the room altogether.

"Where are my glasses?" Daniel asked. Sam passed them over. "And how is Janet?"

"Not well," said Sam hesitantly after a few moments of silence wherein she realized that Jack was not going to help her out. Daniel's face fell. "We used your idea though. I tried an alternate penicillin. It wasn't strong enough."

Daniel looked at her blankly.

"On the planet? You told me to find an alternate."

"Oh that," Daniel said, understanding at last. "That's a good idea, but I meant use an alternate method completely. I meant use the healing device."

"Daniel, I – "

"What is the downside?" Daniel's voice was uncharacteristically charged and colour returned to his still pale face. "Warner gives her the antidote, as is, and you keep the penicillin from killing her. If we're lucky, she'll be cured."

"Daniel, what if I'm unlucky?"

"If you're unlucky, she dies," Daniel said flatly. "Believe me, at this point, she wants cured or dead."

"Carter?"

"It's risky sir."

"Can you do it, Sam?"

His choice of word was deliberate. He wasn't ordering a USAF Major to go the extra mile to save a fellow officer, he was warning a uniquely gifted woman that she might well end the life of one of her best friends.

"Yes sir. I can."

------------

to be continued…


	16. Chapter II

She'd asked them not to watch. She didn't want them to see the moment where she failed, and used the device to kill Janet, and put them all out of their misery. She'd asked them not to watch, but no force on Earth, or any other place in the Universe, for that matter, could have kept them from the observation room. It wasn't like she would see them, after all.

Teal'c, Jack, Daniel and General Hammond sat completely still and watched through the one way mirror as Sam and Dr. Warner prepared Janet for the procedure. In theory, it was simple enough. Warner would inject the penicillin/garlic into Janet. Unlike everyone else who had been given the treatment, Janet would have an anaphylactic response to both the garlic and the penicillin. Sam's job was to keep the penicillin from killing her friend, but still allow it to neutralize the garlic's reaction to the blood stream. It was a tight line, and the question was whether Sam would have the control to keep everything together.

"Are you ready, Major?" Warner asked, speaking across Janet's prone form.

Sam took several deep breaths and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they were frozen with blue resolve.

"I am."

"Injecting serum now," Warner reported. "The reaction should begin in a few moments."

Sam closed her eyes again and held her hand above Janet's chest. Since anaphylaxis constricted the bronchial tubes, she was planning to focus her defense on Janet's lungs. In the seconds before the reaction began, Sam looked inside herself for the power she knew she would need. For the smallest instant, she found nothing and despaired. But then she felt it: the singing in her blood that the alien had left behind. It sang of Salvation.

"Major! She's begun!"

Sam barely heard him. She extended her hyperawareness of her own body through her hand and into Janet. Suddenly, she had more of everything, and the lines between what was hers and what was Janet's blurred. She had four lungs and two of them were horribly clogged. She choked, unsure if she could still breathe.

"Major? Sam! Breathe Sam! Your lungs are fine. Fix hers! But breathe!"

Warner's voice snapped though her and she heaved a breath. Forcing her awareness back into Janet, she allowed a small portion of herself to remain in her own lungs so Warner would not have cause to distract her again. Sam pushed her way into Janet's lungs and forced the bronchial tubes open, using her own lungs as a guide.

------------

"What is she doing?" Jack asked, looking down from the observation room.

"I believe Major Carter is endeavouring to prop Doctor Fraiser's lungs open, O'Neill."

"What if she, uh, over-props?"

"I don't think she can, Jack." Daniel replied quickly, banishing his own concerns. "The device operates mainly on instinct, and Janet's lungs are practically Sam's right now."

Jack looked hard at Daniel. The archaeologist had some colour back in his cheeks now, and his voice was hopeful, but there was still a haunted look in his eyes. Jack forced himself to smile, hoping the result wasn't too off-putting.

"They'll be fine, Daniel."

"I know."

------------

In the centre of the action, Dr. Warner watched the Major struggle, feeling oddly detached and absolutely useless. His job would begin again once the garlic reaction had finished. They knew from the test runs that the foreign protein, garlic and penicillin burnt themselves out at the conclusion of the reaction, but the Sanoctem disease had thrown them so many curves by now, that Warner was leaving nothing to chance. Anything on the SGC that might be used to resuscitate someone was in the room, and when the time came, he would use them all if he had to.

Sam was sweating now, her hand stretched wide over Janet's chest, straining at the limits placed on it by its own ligaments. Janet's body jerked, the typical reaction to the treatment, her movements confined by the beam of energy connecting her to Sam's hand. As abruptly as it had begun, Janet's seizure stopped. She lay deathly still, and all those observing held their breath. Warner flew to her side, checking for pulse and respiration with a speed bought with years of practice.

"She's breathing!" he announced to the window, knowing full well of their audience. "She's going to be fine, Dr. Jackson. She's going to be fine!"

Daniel was on his feet in an instant and out the door as fast as he could move. Jack and Teal'c let him by and then followed quickly, leaving Hammond alone in the observation room. Warner was busy attaching various monitors to Janet, and did not notice that Sam had moved away from the bed, grasping at the wall for support. So it was that only General Hammond was looking when Sam removed the healing device, staggered into the wall, and collapsed on the floor in a heap.

------------

to be continued…


	17. Chapter III

Daniel Jackson had been described more than once and by various colleagues as "unusually busy". This often involved a lot of fast talking, an abnormally large pile of books, and approximately half of the legal exports of Columbia. Whatever it was Daniel was busy with now, however, rendered him stock still, almost catatonic.

Teal'c was waiting with him. They sat by Janet's bed in the observation room, silent and waiting. Daniel had taken Janet's hand as soon as they had sat down, and he not moved a muscle since, save the thumb that idly brushed her wrist every few minutes. Jack and General Hammond were in the main infirmary waiting for Sam to wake up. Dr. Warner said she was just exhausted and should be perfectly fine in a few hours. He had not said anything about Janet.

Teal'c disliked keeping vigil at sick beds. He disliked how useless it made him feel. But he stayed. Because if things went awry, Daniel Jackson would need him. Irrationally, Teal'c wished he had not killed his god, so that he might offer his own life in return for Janet's recovery.

He had never quite known what to make of her. By Earth standards, she was short. In the eyes of the Jaffa, she was tiny. But there was a will in her, a determination which had awed even Bra'tac. How such a spirit could be contained in such a vessel was beyond his ken. How someone so hard could be so kind at the same time, he could never understand. But there she was, and he could do nothing to save her.

One of his favourite memories of his time with the Tau'ri was the day, about eight months ago, that he had walked into Daniel Jackson's lab to inquire about the procurement of lunch, to find that Daniel was not alone. He was typing something on the computer, and she was just that unspoken fraction too close. She had laughed at something and he had smiled and Teal'c had eaten lunch alone that day. Neither of them had ever known he was there.

When, a few days later, Jack had strode into Sam's lab looking like the cat who'd washed the canary down with cream, Teal'c had known the game was up. Even then, with the exception of a few well placed comments, the whole situation had been treated with extreme tact.

This disease had changed all that. It had forced first Janet's and then Daniel's emotions out onto their sleeves for all to see. Their relationship was no longer a well guarded secret, or something private that could be overlooked by the highers-up. It was public now, and for that insult, Teal'c cursed the Sanoctem most of all.

The door to the observation room slid open. Daniel remained unmoving, save for his thumb, but Teal'c turned to acknowledge Sam and Jack's entrance. Sam was pale, with dark lines under her eyes. As she walked around the bed, she stumbled slightly, and Jack caught her arm for support. He helped her into the chair opposite Daniel, and sat in the other one himself, still holding her up. Sam reached out with her free hand and took Janet's. Daniel's shoulders began to shake as tears fell across his cheeks. Teal'c places a hand upon his friend's shoulder. Thus linked, SG-1 continued their vigil.

------------

And so the next few hours passed. Hammond, though kept away by base business, did not forget them, but ordered them left alone together, knowing it was for the best. Dr. Warner made only one round, knowing that they would call him if there were any changes. He had brought a tray of sandwiches, which remained untouched, right where he'd set them. In the pervasive silence, Sam had fallen asleep, almost unnoticed, except by Jack, who put his jacket under her neck. And then, for the first time in hours, a human being in that room made a sound.

Janet moaned.

Four heads snapped up, immediately attentive. Jack hit the call bell. As Janet moaned again, her face contorted. After hours of non-response, her fingers gripped Daniel's closing like a vise so unexpectedly strong that he gasped and bit his tongue.

Warner and his team came flying into the room then, and SG-1 cleared away for them. Daniel tried, but could not extricate his fingers from Janet's grasp.

"Doctor, what's happening?" Daniel shouted, speaking much more loudly than he had planned.

"I don't know!" Warner sounded desperate. "There's nothing left for her to react to."

"It's the pain," Sam said, finally remembering that neither Warner nor Daniel had ever seen the cure play out on the planet. "Look at her face."

And it was true. Even as the lesions had split Janet's face that horrible morning in Daniel's bathroom, they now fused together, getting smaller and smaller until only faint white lines were left.

"Daniel?" She was weak, but she was sane and whole and she was Janet.

"I'm here, love." He didn't even realize he'd said it.

Janet smiled. "Me too."

------------

"Are you sure?"

"I'm not going. I will die a happy man if I never set foot on that planet again."

"But the invitation was so pretty!"

"Janet!"

The whole argument would have been much easier if she hadn't been sitting in his lap. He was always more indecisive when she was sitting in his lap. He'd left the infirmary for all of two minutes to fetch his present for Eprem and Esser to give to Sam before she left, and in that time, Janet had managed to get herself discharged, dressed and down to his office. She'd found him sitting at this desk, vainly trying to think of something to write on the card and, in complete disregard for the feelings of the other two chairs in his office, had sat down on his.

"Just because Warner won't let me go to the wedding doesn't mean you have to stay home."

"I know, Janet." He gave and set the pen down, putting his hands on her waist. "I want to stay home."

"Give me the pen." He handed it over and she shifted so that she could reach the card. It was nice, he reflected, to be this close to her and not worry about her trying to kill him. "There. Easy as pie."

He looked down at the card she'd placed in his hands. _Dummodo est lux, timebit nullam tenebras, Best Wishes, Daniel and Janet._

"Easy as pie."

"Let's go home, Daniel."

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to be continued…


	18. Chapter IV

The Cathedral was every bit as magnificent on the inside as the outside promised it would be. The tall stained glass windows reflected the light of the settling sun, and scattered a mottled assortment of colours across every surface in the nave. The bronze and gold finishings of the railings and candle holders shone in the refracted light, and even the wooden beams that supported the great vaulted ceiling seemed to emit an aura.

The light paled in comparison, however, to that which radiated from the face of Esser Aeronnsdaughter as she walked proudly down the aisle on the arm of her equally joyous father. Indeed, there was no shortage of radiant faces in the Cathedral. Almost every family had regained a family member and all rejoiced in this, the first wedding since The Healing.

There had been, from what Jack understood, a bit of a kafuffle earlier as Aeronn wanted to both give his daughter away and officiate her marriage. He had been concerned that the two duties overlapped, and that he might be required to have a conversation with himself in public. Maram had merely rolled her eyes, and handed over the scroll on which she and Esser had written exactly what Aeronn was to say in place of the traditional ceremony.

Aeronn and Esser finally reached the front of the Cathedral and turned to face the congregation. Eprem and his mother joined them.

"This is my daughter, Esser Aeronnsdaughter," Aeronn began. "She has chosen to marry, and my heart rejoices for her."

Eprem's mother, a woman Teal'c had met only once, but remembered well for her words of thanks and offers of help, stepped forward.

"This is my son, Eprem Devdson. He had chosen to marry, and my heart rejoices for him."

Aeronn stepped up onto the raised platform and stood between his daughter and her beloved and the altar in the apse. Eprem and Esser turned to face each other, and Aeronn spoke to them, and to the congregation between their heads.

"For centuries past, our ancestors have been married in this building. Thousands of young people have looked into each other's eyes, standing right where you are standing now, and pledged to spend eternity together."

_The drive home had been silent. He had driven with his left hand. She had linked her fingers with his claiming his right hand as her own for the duration of the trip. She hadn't moved, but looked out at the stars and lightly ran her thumb across the bite marks on his wrist._

"But this wedding is special. This wedding is the first since we have been Healed. This wedding is the first where you can know that all of your children will grow up wholly Sandiem. And most importantly, this wedding, this day, this night and all of those to follow, is yours. My daughter, my son, may God watch over your house, that you might watch over your hearts."

Jack, Sam and Teal'c were seated near a candelabra, but it was not the smoke that had their eyes glistening.

_They sat in the driveway for just a little bit too long before she realized that the reason neither of them had moved was because she hadn't yet relinquished his hand. She looked up to find him regarding her with a very familiar look of amusement on his face. Fighting back her own smile, she threw his hand back at him and opened her door._

At some unspoken signal, the occupants began to file out of the Cathedral and into the court. In the silence that Sam had come to expect of Sandiem religion, the townspeople assembled around the unlit bonfire. There was palpable excitement in the air as excitement and pure joy ran rampant through the crowd.

_She was still laughing when he pinned her against the front door. It had been a mad dash across the lawn. He'd recaptured her hand and fumbled for the keys. Somehow, she'd got caught between him and his target, although when his mouth sealed against hers, she wondered if that hadn't been his intention all along. She sighed into his mouth and felt him smile. Over the pounding of both their hearts, she heard the latch click, and then felt the door give way behind her. She was never entirely sure which one of them it was that kicked it shut again._

The sun was almost gone now. Only a few lingering rays of smoky orange were left, pushing their way determinedly over the horizon. The Cathedral's shadow and silhouette enveloped the courtyard, and it was not until Eprem and Esser spoke that Sam even realized that they and their parents were standing on the steps. The words they spoke were familiar, and Sam knew that she was not the only one in the square who found their face split with an uncontrollable grin.

_He carried her up the stairs because he could. Due to their recent medical adventures, he was a little more out of breath than usual by the time he reached the top, but to be completely honest, he didn't notice. They were home and they were safe. He had called her 'love' in front of half the SGC and no one had cared. The lighting in the bed room was faint, just the orange glow of the street light outside his window, but he could still see the lines on her face and body. He traced them with fingers and mouth, and kissed her until he saw spots for lack of oxygen._

"Et dummodo est lux, timebit nullam tenebras!" the newlyweds intoned together, their voices full of love and joy and hope.

_She whispered his name when he touched her, hot fingers banishing away the lingering cold and darkness of the Sanoctem infection. He'd set her on the bed as though she were made of spun sugar, but that was just who he was. When he'd moved away to undress, she'd flashed suddenly to the cave, where firelight and madness had overwhelmed her, but then he'd come back, and kissed her again, and all fear was driven from her mind._

The torch in their hands flared to life suddenly as the last rays of the sun disappeared from the sky. And just before they lit the fire, Esser paused, the firelight casting no shadows upon her smiling face.

_She remembered the power of his blood running through her veins, the sick, needy joy of the blood lust. This was much better. This was real. This was life. This was making her gasp and moan beneath him as they both hungered for more._

"For Janet Fraiser!" Esser cried, and she and her husband threw the torch atop the piled wood.

_Her name rang in her ears when the world exploded and he kissed her until they were both firmly back on Earth._

And the stars and moon looked down upon them, and the flames and the voices and the music reached up, fearing neither light nor darkness.

------

**Finis**

AN: This story has undergone a great many changes since that sunny day in the park when I first began to turn the plan into the tale. One thing I love about writing is how seemingly random decisions come back to be meaningful at the end of the story. I never meant for the Blood Lust to be so bad, and yet as I was writing it, I couldn't even remember how I had first intended it to be. The best decision I made, though, was to make it Daniel/Janet. It's weird, the decision was completely arbitrary, and it has literally changed my life. I met some fantastic people during the writing of Blood Night, and that made it all the more worth while.

I hope you had as much fun as I did.

gravitynotincluded April to November, 2004


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